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CANADA: 



DEFENCES, CONDITION, AND RESOURCES. 



A SECOND AND CONCLUDING VOLUME OF "MY DIARY, NORTH 
AND SOUTH." 



wrH. 



'^•jou W/^OWARD RUSSELL, LL.D. 





SECOND EDITION. 


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BOSTON: 




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O. H. P. BURNHAM. 




NEW YORK: 0. S. FELT. 






1865. 





RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BT 

H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 



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PREFACE. 



I BEGAN to write this book by way of sequel to 
" My Diary North and South," with the intention of 
describing Canada as I saw it at the close of my 
visit to North America, but the subject grew upon 
me as I went on, and at last I discarded much per- 
sonal detail, and set to work with the view of calling 
attention to the capabilities of the vast regions be- 
longing to the British Crown on the American Con- 
tinent, and of pointing out the magnificent heritage 
which is open to our redundant population. But the 
subject was too great for the compass of one volume, 
because connected with it, too intimately to be over- 
looked, were the questions of the defence and of 
the future of countries, which the establishment of 
a monarchical principle on an imperfect basis, and 
their dependence on the Crown, exposed to the hos- 
tility of a great republic. I was therefore obliged 
to contract my own experiences, small as they were, 
and to omit many topics included in the original 
scope of my writing. The book was nearly finished 
when suddenly, as it seemed, the whole of the Prov- 
inces, yielding to a common sentiment of danger, 
sent their delegates to consider the policy and possi- 



Vi PREFACE. 

bility of a great Confederation, which had been 
strongly recommended in the pages ah'eady written. 
The idea of such a Confederation was an old one ; 
but the prompt resolve to carry it into practical effect, 
and the words spoken and acts done in consequence, 
rendered it necessary to cancel the work of many 
hours, as much of what I had written would have 
been anticipated by what has been printed. There 
are many dangers inherent in the nature of the 
proposed Confederation ; there are many obstacles 
to its harmonious and successful working ; but on 
the whole some such scheme appears to be the 
only practical mode of saving the British Provinces 
from the aggression of the North American Repub- 
licans. 

What is to become of the existing Governments 
of Provinces ? How regulate the contentions wliich 
may arise between Provincial Parliaments and Pro- 
vincial Ministers and Provincial Governors by the 
action of the Federal Parliament and of the repre- 
sentative of the Crown at the seat of Government ? 
The difficulties we foresee may never come to pass, 
and others far greater, of which we have no foresight, 
may arise ; but for all this the Confederation presents 
the only means now available, as far as we can per- 
ceive, for securing to the Provinces present indepen- 
dence and a future political life distinct from the 
turbulent existence of the United States. A glance 
at the map will reveal the extent of the Empire 
which rests upon the Lakes with one arm on the 
Atlantic and the other on the Pacific, whilst its face 
is wrapped in a mantle of eternal snow; but it tells 
us no more. No reasoning man can maintain that 



PREFACE. Vli 

the people whom a few years will behold as numer- 
ous as the inhabitants of these islands, will be con- 
tent to live permanently under the system of the 
Colonial Office. That system is probably the only 
one our Constitution permits us to adopt ; but it is 
nevertheless the policy, if not the duty, of this State 
to foster the youth and early life of the colonies we 
have founded, and to protect them, as far as may be, 
from the evils which shall come upon them in conse- 
quence of their present connection with great Britain. 
Despised, neglected, and abandoned, the Provinces 
would feel less irritation against their conquerors 
than against their betrayers, and England might re- 
gret with unavailing sorrow the indifference which 
left her without a foot of land or a friend in the New 
World. Generosity not inconsistent with justice 
may yet lay the foundations of an enduring alliance 
where once there was only cold fealty and un sympa- 
thizing command. A powerful State may arise 
whose greatest citizens shall be proud to receive 
such honors as the Monarch of England can bestow, 
whose people shall vie with us in the friendly con- 
tests of commerce, and stand side by side with us in 
battle. And when the inevitable hour of separation 
comes, the parting will not then be in anger. A 
Constitutional Republic, in which Monarchy would 
have been possible but for the prudence of the mother- 
country, may exist without any hatred of Monarchy 
or of England ; and the people, born with equal 
rights to pursue liberty and happiness, would love 
the land from which flowed the sources of so many 
substantial blessings. 

I hope that my apprehensions may prove ill- 



Viu PREFACE. 

founded, and that the dangers to which our North 
American possessions now, and England herself and 
the peace of the world hereafter, are in my opinion 
exposed, may be forever averted. 

WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL. 
Temple, January, 18&5 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Introductory. — Canada and the Mason and Slidell Case. — Threats 
of Annexation. — Defence of Canada. — Reasons for Visiting the 
British Provinces. — Illness at New York. — Hostility displayed 
there. — Monotony of New York. — Hotel Life. — " Birds of a 
Feather." — Nationality absorbed. — Start for Canada. — Rail- 
way Companions. — Public Credulity. — A Victory in the Papers. 
History of "A Big Fight." — General Pumpkin and Jefferson Brick . 1 

CHAPTER n. 

To the Station. — Stars and Stripes. — Crowd at Station. — Train im- 
peded by Snow. — Classic Ground. — " Manhattan." — " Yonkers." 
Fellow-Travellers and their Ways. — " Beauties of the Hudson." 
West Point: their Education, &c. — Large Towns on the Banks 
of the Hudson. — Arrive at East Albany. — Delavan House. — 
Beds at a Premium. — Aspect of Albany not impressive. — Sights. 
The Legislature 15 

CHAPTER HI. 

Unpleasant Journey to Niagara. — Mr. Seward. — The Union and its 
Dangers. — Pass Buffalo. — Arrival at Niagara. — A " Touter." 
Bad Weather. — The Road. — Climate compared. — Desolate Ap- 
pearance of Houses. — The St. Lawrence viewed from above. — 
One Hundred Years ago. — Canada the great Object of the Amer- 
icans. — The Welland Canal. — Effect of the Falls from a Distance. 
Gradual Approach. — Less Volume of Water in Winter. — Differ- 
ent Effect and Dangers in Winter. — Icicles. — Behind the Cata- 
ract. — Photographs and Bazaar. — Visit the " Lions " generally. 
Brock. — American and Canadian Sides contrasted. — Goat Island. 
A Whisper heard. — Afills and Manufactories .... 25 

CHAPTER IV. 

Leave Niagara. — Suspension Bridge. — In British Territory. — Ham- 
ilton City. — Buildings. — Proceed Eastward. — Toronto. — Dine at 
Mess. — Pay Visits. — Public Edifices. — Sleighs. — Amusement 
of the Boys. — Camaraderie in the Army. — Kindly Feeling dis- 
1* 



CONTENTS. 



played. — Journey resumed towards Quebec. — Intense Cold. — 
Snow Landscape". — Morning in the Train. — Hunger and lesser 
Troubles. — Kingston, its Rise and military Position; Harbor, 
Dockyards ; Its Connection with the Prince of "Wales's Tour. — 
The Upper St. Lawrence. — Canada as to Defence .... 47 

CHAPTER V. 

Arrive at Cornwall. —The St. Lawrence. — Gossip on India. — As- 
pect of the Country. — Montreal. — The St. Lawrence Hall Hotel. 
Story of a Guardsman. — Bumside. — Dinner. — Refuse a Ban- 
quet. — Flags. — Climate. — Salon-a-mangei'. — Contrast of Amer- 
icans and English. — Sleighs. — The " Driving Club." — The Vic- 
toria Bridge. — Uneasy Feeling. — Monument to Irish Emigrants. 
Irish Character. — Montreal and New York. — The Rink. — Sir F. 
Williams. — Influence of the Northerners 62 



CHAPTER VI. 

Visit the "Lions" of Montreal. — The 47th Regiment. — The City 
open to Attack. — Quays, Public Buildings. — French Coloniza- 
tion. — Rise of Montreal. — Stone. — A French- Anglicized City. 
Loyalty of Canadians. — Arrival of Troops. — Facings. — British 
and American Army compared. — Experience needed by Latter. — 
Slavery 76 

CHAPTER Vn. 

First View of Quebec. — Passage of the St. Lawrence. — Novel and 
rather alarming Situation. — Russell's Hotel. — The Falls of Mont- 
morenci, and the " Cone." — Aspect of the Cit}'. — The Point. — 
" Tarboggining." — Description of the " Cone." — Audacity of one 
of my Companions. — A Canadian Dinner. — Call on the Governor. 
Visit the Citadel. — Its Position. — Capabilities for Defence. — 
View from Parapet. — The Armory. — Old Muskets. — Red-tape 
Thoughtfulness. — French and English Occupation of Quebec. — 
Strength of Quebec 88 

CHAPTER VHI. 

Lower Canada and Ancient France. — Soldiers in Garrison at Que- 
bec. — Canadian Volunteers. — The Governor-General Viscount 
Monck. — Uniform in the United States. — A Sleighing Party. — 
Dinner and Calico Ball 107 

CHAPTER IX. 

Canadian View of the American Struggle. — English Officers in the 
States. — My own Position in the States and in Canada. — The 
Ursulines in Quebec. — General Montcalm. — French Canadians. 
Imperial Honors. — Celts and Saxons. — Salmon Fishing. — Early 
Government of Canada. — Past and Future 113 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER X. 

PAGE 

Canadian Hospitality. — Muffins. — Departure for the States. — Deser- 
tions. — Montreal again. — Southerners in Montreal. — Drill and 
Snow-Shoes. — Winter Campaigning. — Snow-Drifts. — Military 
Discontent 131 

CHAPTER XI. 

Extent of Canada. — The Lakes. — Canadian Wealth. — Early His- 
tory. — Jacques Cartier. — English and French Colonists. — Colo- 
nial and Acadian Troubles. — La Salle. — Border Conflicts. — Early 
Expeditions. — Invasions from New England. — Louisburg and 
Ticonderoga. — The Colonial Lisurrection. — Partition of Canada. 
Progress of Upper Canada. — France and Canada. — The Ameri- 
can Invasion. — Winter Campaign. — New Orleans and Plattsburg. 
Peace of Ghent. — Political Controversies. — Winter Communica- 
tion. — Sentiments of Hon. Joseph Howe. — General View of Im- 
perial and Colonial Relations 140 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Militia. — American Intentions. — Instability of the Volunteer 
Principle. — The Drilling of Militia. — The Commission of 1862. — 
The Duke of Newcastle's Views. — Militia Schemes. — Volunteer 
Force. — Apathy of the French Canadians. — The First Summons 177 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Possible Dangers. — The Future Danger. — Open to Attack. — Canals 
and Railways. — Probable Lines of Invasion. — Lines of Attack 
and Defence. — London. — Toronto. — Defences of Kingston. — 
Defences of Quebec. 197 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Rapid Increase of Population. — Mineral Wealth. — Cereals. — Imports 
and Exports. — Climate. — Agriculture. — A Settler's Life . . 213 

CHAPTER XV. 

Reciprocal Rights. — American Ideas of Reciprocity. — The Ad Valo- 
rem System. — Commercial Improvements. — Trade with Amer- 
ica. — "^The Ottawa Route. — The Saskatchewan. — Fertility of the 
Country. — Water Communication. — The Maritime Provinces. — 
Area and Population 229 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The "Ashburton Capitulation." — Boundaries of Quebec. — Arbitra- 
tion in 1831. — Lord Ashburton's Mission. — The Questions in Dis- 
pute. — " The Sea " v. " The Atlantic." — American Diplomatists. 
Franklin's Red Line. — Compromise. — The Maps. — Maine. — 



Xll CONTENTS. 



PAGifi 

Damage to Canada. — Mr. Webster's Defence. — His Opinion of 
the Road. — Value of the Heights. — Our Share of Equivalents.* — 
Value of Rouse's Point. — Vermont. — New Hampshire . . 250 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Acadian Confederation. — Union is Strength. — The Provinces. 
New Brunswick. — The Temperature. — Trade of St. John. — Cli- 
mate and Agriculture of Nova Scotia. — Prince Edward Island. — 
Newfoundland. — The Red River District. — Assiniboia. — The 
Red River Valley. — Minnesota and the West. — The Hudson's 
Bay Company — Their Territory. — The Northwest Regions. — 
Climate of Winnipeg Basin — Its Area. — Finances of the Confed- 
eration. — Imports, Exports, and Tonnage. — Proposed Federal 
Constitution. — Lessons from the American Struggle. . . 274 



CANADA: 

ITS DEFENCES, CONDITION, AND RESOURCES. 



CHAPTER I. 



Introductory. — Canada and the Mason and Slidell Case. — Threats of 
Annexation. — Defence of Canada. — Reasons for Visiting the British 
Provinces. — Illness at New York. — Hostility displayed there. — Mo- 
notony of New York. — Hotel Life. — " Birds of a Feather." — National- 
ity absorbed. — Start for Canada. — Railway Companions. — Public 
Credulity. —A Victory in the Papers. — History of " A Big Fight." — 
General Pumpkin and Jefferson Brick. 

I DO not pretend to offer any new observations on 
the climate, soil, or capabilities of Canada, nor can I 
venture to call these pages a " work " on that great 
province. I have nothing novel to advance in the 
hope of attracting an immigration to its wide-spread 
territories, and any statistical facts and figm-es I may 
use are accessible to all interested in the commerce 
or in the past, present, and future of the land. 

Nor do 1 write with any particular theory in view, 
or with any crotchet on the subject of colonies, out- 
lying provinces, and dependencies, and their value or 
detriment to the dominant commercial and imperial 
power. 

My actual acquaintance with the country and the 
people is only such as I acquired in a few weeks' 
travelling in the depth of winter; and such sort of 
knowledge as I gathered would certainly afford no 
great excuse in itself for intruding my remarks or 
opinions on^he public when so many excellent books 
on Canada already exist. 



2 CANADA. 

But it happened that my visit took place at a very- 
remarkable period of Canadian and American his- 
tory, and at a time, too, when certain doctrines, 
broached not for the first time, but urged with more 
than usual ability, as to the relations between what 
for convenience I call the mother-country and her 
colonies, were exciting great attention across the 
Atlantic. 

When I left Washington in the winter, a great 
crisis had been peacefully but not willingly averted 
by a concession on the part of the Federal Govern- 
ment to what the sentiment of the American people 
considered an exhibition of brute force. The first 
year of the war had closed over the Federals in 
gloom. Their arms were not wielded with credit at 
home, — if credit ever can attach to arms wielded in 
a civil war, — and the foreign power which it had 
been their wont to treat with something as near 
akin to disrespect as diplomatic decency would per- 
mit, aroused by an act which outraged the laws of 
nations and provoked the censure of every European 
power with business on the waters, had made prep- 
arations which could only imply that she would 
have recourse to hostility if her demands for satis- 
faction were refused. 

It was under these circumstances that England 
obtained the reparation for which she sought, and in 
the eyes of Americans filched a triumph over their 
flag and took an insolent advantage over their weak- 
ened power " to do as they pleased." General Mc- 
Clellan, playing the part of Fabius, perhaps because 
he knew not how to play any other part, had fallen 
sick and was nigh at death's door in the malarious 
winter at Washington. The great Union army, like 
a hybernating eel in the mud, lay motionless, between 
the Potomac and the clever imposture of the Con- 
federate lines and wooden batteries at Manassas. 

But haughty and hopeful as ever, in tone if not 
in heart, the Americans raved about vengeance foi 



RIDICULE OF THE AMERICAN PRESS. 3 

their own just concessions. They boasted that the 
seizure of Canada would be one of the measures of 
retaliation to which they intended promptly to resort, 
as the indemnity to their injured vanity and as com- 
pensation for the surrender of Messrs. Mason and 
Slidell. 

Meanwhile the small force of British troops sta- 
tioned in Canada was reinforced by the speedy dis- 
patch of some picked regiments from England, which 
did not raise it much beyond its regular strength, 
and tardy steps were taken to organize an efficient 
militia in the province. The volunteer movement 
had extended its influence across the ocean, and a 
commendable activity all over the British Colonies 
and Canada falsified the complacent statements of 
the American papers that the people were not loyal 
to the Crown nor careful of the connection, which, 
it was alleged, they would gladly substitute for the 
protection of the standard of the Northern Republic. 

All these necessary precautions against the conse- 
quences of the refusal of the American Government 
to yield the passengers taken from under our flag, 
were watched angrily and jealously in the States. 
The British reinforcements were ridiculed ; their tedi- 
ous passages, their cheerless marches, were jeeringly 
chronicled. Whole ships were reported to have gone 
down with living cargoes. Those who landed were 
represented as being borne on sleighs by sufferance 
routes, which would be impracticable in war. The 
Canadians were abused — and so were the Provin- 
cialists. The volunteers were assailed with the 
weapons which the American press knows so well 
how to use. 

But that was false policy. It gave a stimulus to 
the loyal feeling of the subjects of the Crown. The 
Canadian press retorted, and, exulting in the triumph 
of the Home Government over the Republican Ad- 
ministration, uttered the taunts which Americans 
least brook to hear. 



4 CANADA. 

It was assumed that the task of vengeance and 
conquest would be light. I received letters in which 
it was maintained that Canada could not be de- 
fended, and that she was not worth defending; 
others merely urged that if the Canadians would not 
take a prominent part in aid of imperial measures 
for their protection, they must be handed over to the 
invading Arnericans ; that their country cost more 
than it was worth, and that it was a mistake to keep 
any connection with the wrong side of the ledger, 
no matter what the results of rupturing it might be. 

Americans told me " General Scott declares the 
Canadian frontier is not capable of defence." True, 
Americans had told me some months ago that Gen- 
eral Scott, now 7nis en retraite in New York, after a 
hasty return from Europe, — not, as was asserted, 
with diplomatic authority or with the view of invad- 
ing Canada, but to save his pension in case of for- 
eign war, — would be in Richmond about July 22d 
or 24th, 1861. I heard some views of the same kind 
from our own officers, who expressed doubts respect- 
ing the possibility of a successful resistance to Amer- 
ican invasion. 

Now if that were so, it struck me that the troops 
we had in the country could prove but of little use, 
and that at the same time the relative condition of 
strength between the United States and Great Brit- 
ain had undergone a vital change in face of the very 
agencies which ought to have established more solidly 
the results obtained in the last trial of force and re- 
sources between them on Canadian ground. It was 
worth while trying to ascertain the truth and to re- 
solve these questions. 

The United States, dreading a foreign war which 
might interfere with their invasion of the Southern 
States, had ungraciously made a concession, in re- 
venge for making which their press declared they 
would on the first convenient occasion make war on 
the Power they had offended, in a country which 



FORTIFYING THE FRONTIER. 5 

they had invaded with all their united power — when 
Great Britain, steamless and remote, was engaged 
in European conflicts and destitute of maritime 
allies — onl}^ to meet with defeat, or with success of 
a nature to prove their incompetency to conquer. 

Was the power of this distracted republic, con- 
tending furiously with rebellious members, then, be- 
come so great ? If so, with what motive was Great 
Britain hurrying across the sea the elite of her troops 
— too few to save these vast domains, too many to 
lose, and far too many to return as paroled pris- 
oners ? Why try to defend on such terms what was 
worthless and indefensible ? Canada, if not suscep- 
tible of defence, would be certainly unsuitable as a 
base for offensive operations against the States. 
Obviously the matter stood thus : that the military 
question depended on the temper and spirit of the 
people themselves. 

The whole force of the Canadians, sustained by 
Great Britain, might, apparently, defy all the offen- 
sive power of the United States ; and I desired to 
ascertain in what condition were their temper and 
defences. 

At this time British officers were endeavoring to 
prepare the possessions of the Crown against threat- 
ened invasion. The Americans on their side were 
busy fortifying some important points on the lakes. 

General Totten, an officer of the United States 
Engineers, well known for his ability, was under- 
stood to be engaged on a very elaborate plan of 
works along the frontier. Colonel Gordon, whose 
name will be forever associated with the left attack 
at the siege of Sebastopol, aided by an experienced 
staff, was employed on our side, studying the capa- 
bilities of the frontier, and maturing a plan for the 
consideration of the government in case of an Amer- 
ican war. 

There were reasons, too, of a personal character 
for my visiting Canada. I had a fever, which wa§ 



6 CANADA. 

contracted at Washington and laid me prostrate at 
New York. It was of the low typhoid type, which 
proved fatal to so many in the Federal army at the 
same time, and its effects made me weaker for the 
time than I ever remember to have been. There 
was no promise whatever of military operations, and 
I read every day of the arrival of friends and ac- 
quaintances in Canada, whose faces it would be 
pleasant to see, after the endurance of so many hos- 
tile glances and such public exhibition of ill-will. 

I do not wish to dwell on private annoyances, but 
as an instance of the feeling displayed towards me 
in New York I may mention one circumstance. On 
my arrival in 1861 I was elected an honorary member 
of the club which derives its name from the state or 
city, and was indebted to its members for many acts 
of courtesy and for more than one entertainment. 
Returning to the city from Washington early this 
year, I was invited to dine at the same club by one 
or two of my friends. Certain members, as I after- 
wards heard, took umbrage at my presence, and fast- 
ened a quarrel on my entertainers. A day or two 
subsequently the people of New York were called 
on, by the notorious journalist who had honored me 
with his animosity ever since I refused the dishonor 
of his acquaintance, to express their indignation at 
the conduct of the club ; and the members received 
a characteristic reprimand for their presumption in 
letting me into the club, from which they had kept 
their censor and his clientelle carefully out. My 
offence was rank ; and public opinion — or what is 
called so — perhaps was in favor of the ostracism at 
that moment ; for, as far as I know, the people must 
have believed I was the sole cause of the Federal 
defeat and flight at Bull Run. 

There was some novelty in the idea of starting 
for Canada in the midst of the bitter winter wind 
and the dazzling snow : but I would have gone to 
Nova Zembla at the time to have escaped the mo- 



NEW YORK DEMOCRATS. 1 

notony of New York, which the effects of recent ill- 
ness rendered more irksome. 

New York is among cities, what one of the lower 
order of molluscous animals, with a single intestinal 
canal, is to a creature of a higher development, 
with various organs, and full of veins and arteries. 
Up and down the Broadway passes the stream of 
life to and from the heart in Wall Street. In the 
narrow space from water to water on either side of 
this dry canal there is comparatively little anima- 
tion, and nothing at all to reward the researches of a 
stranger. 

Johnson's remark about Fleet Street would apply 
with truth to the gawky thoroughfare of the Atlantic 
Tyi'e. In the Broadway or its " west-end " exten- 
sions are to be found all the hotels, which are the 
ganglia of the feverish nervous system so 'incessantly 
agitated by the operations of the journalistic insects 
living in secret cysts nigh at hand. All day the 
great tideway is rolling in, headed by a noisy crest 
of little boys, with extras under their arms, and her- 
alded by a confused surfy murmur of voices tdling 
"lies" for cents, and enunciating "Another Great 
Union Victory I " in one great bore ; or it is rushing 
out again with a dismal leaden current, laden with 
doubts and fears, as the news of some disaster 
breaks through the locks of government reservoirs 
and floods the press. 

In my hotel, where I was fain to seclude myself in 
my illness, and to follow the very un-American prac- 
tice of living in a suite of private rooms, there was 
but little conflict of opinion on any great event, real 
or fictitious, which turned up from day to day. The 
guests and visitors were wellnigh all of one way of 
thinking. They were of the old conservative party, 
so oddly denominated Democrats, who believed in 
States Rights : in the right of states to create and 
maintain their domestic institutions — to secede, if 
they pleased, from the Union — to resist the attempts 



8 CANADA. 

of the General Government of the other states to 
coerce them by force of arms. 

Some of these gentlemen were satisfied the South 
would not be coerced ; some hoped the South would 
resist successfully. None, I fear, were " loyal " to 
President Lincoln and Mr. Seward, and I am sure 
none would have said so much for either of them or 
their friends as I would. 

The majority principle forces people who hold sim- 
ilar views to meet together, and to select the same 
hotels to live in. This is unfortunate for a stranger 
who desires to hear the views of both sides. In the 
" New York," from the highly artistic and skilful oper- 
ator who flashed out cocktails at the bar, up to the 
highest authority, there was no man who would like 
to say that he was on good terms with Mr. Sumner, 
or that he did not think Mr. Seward the representa- 
tive of evil principles. The rule was proved by the 
exceptions : two I suspect there were — stout Irish 
waiters, who did not approve of the attempts to 
destroy " our glorious Union," but who did not find 
the atmosphere of the place quite favorable to the 
free expression of the opinion they mildly hinted at 
to myself. 

The sameness of ideas, of expressions, of faces, 
became unbearable. I could tell quite well by the 
look of men's faces what news they had heard, and 
what they were saying or going to say about it. 
Here were crafty politicals and practical men of busi- 
ness, and persons of a philosophical and reflective 
temperament, as well as the foolish, the mere pleas- 
ure-hunters, and the unthinking mass of an hotel 
world, all looking forward to a near to-morrow to 
^nd the woes of the state, always waiting for a 
' decisive " battle or " an indignant uprising of the 
people " to drive the Republicans out of power and 
office. 

Not one of them could or would see that the con- 
test, when terminated, would give birth to others — 



AMERICAN CONTEMPT FOR CANADA. 9 

that the vast bodies of divers interests, prejudices, 
hatreds, and wrongs set in motion by war over so 
enormous a surface, where they had been kept sus- 
pended and inert by the powers of compromise, could 
never be reconsolidated and restored to the same 
state as before, and that it would be the work of 
time, the labor of many years, ere they could settle 
to rest in any shape whatever. 

I am told respectable Americans do not use the 
word " Britisher," but I am bound to say I heard 
Americans who looked very respectable using the 
word at the time of which I speak, when there was 
still irritation on both sides in consequence of the sur- 
render of Mason and Slidell : in the minds of the 
friends of the South, because they were balked in 
their anticipation of a foreign war ; in the Federal 
mind, because, after much threatening and menaces, 
they had seen the captives surrendered to the British 
by the President, or, more properly speaking, by Mr. 
Seward. 

Hence it was, perhaps, that Canada was always 
mentioned, in such a tone of contempt, as though the 
speakers sought to relieve their feelings by abuse of 
a British dependency. 

" Goin' to Canada ! " exclaimed the faithful Mi- 
lesian who had been my attendant — in fact, my sub- 
stitute for a nurse. " Lord help us ! That^s a poor 
place, anyhow. I thought you 'd be contint wid the 
snow we've got here. It's plinty, anyhow. But 
Canada ! " The man had never been there in his 
life, but he spoke as if it were beyond the bounds 
of civilization. He had served in a British reg- 
iment for many years ; many of his brothers had 
been, I think he told me, in the service, but now they 
were all in the States, and to his notion thriving like 
himself. 

In no country on earth is an old nationality so 
soon absorbed as in America. I am inclined to think 
the regard professed for England by American liter- 



10 CANADA. 

ary men is sentimental, and is produced by education 
and study rather than by any feeling transmitted in 
families or by society. 

The emigrant, it is remarked, speedily forgets — 
in the hurry of his new life the ways of the old slip 
out of his memory. One day I said to my man, as * 
a regiment of volunteers was marching down Broad- 
way, " Those fellows are not quite as well set up as 
the 41st, Pat."— "Well, indeed, and that's thrue ; 
but they 'd fight as well, I b'lieve, and better maybe, 
if they 'd the officers, poor craychures I Anyhow," 
continued he with great gravity, " they can't be 
flogged for nothin' or for anything." — " Were you 
ever flogged? " — " No, sirir — not a lash ever touched 
my back, but I 've known fine sogers spiled by it." 
It is likely enough that he had never thought on the 
subject till he came to the States — a short time be- 
fore and he would have resented deeply the idea that 
any regiment on earth could stand before Her Maj- 
esty's 41st. 

It was now near the end of January, and as a 
gleam of fine weather might thaw the glorious Union 
army of the Potomac, and induce them to advance 
on tlie inglorious army of the Confederacy, I resolved 
to make the best of my way northwards forthwith. 

My companions were a young British officer, dis- 
tinguished in the Crimea, in India, and in China, 
who represented a borough in Parliament, and had 
come out to see the great contest which was raging 
in the United States ; and an English gentleman, 
who happened to be at New York, and was anxious 
to have a look at Niagara, even in its winter dress. 

On the 27th January we were all packed to start 
by the 5.30 p. m train by Albany to Niagara, and 
thence to Toronto. The landlord made me up a 
small assortment of provisions, as in snow-time trains 
are not always certain of anything but irregularity. 
I was regarded as one who was about to make my- 
self needlessly miserable when he might continue in 



A "UNION VICTORY." 11 

much happiness. " You had better stay, sir, for a few 
days. I have certain intelligence, let me whisper 
you, that the Abolitionists will be whipped at the end 
of this week, and old Abe driven out of Wash- 
ington." 

The little boys still shout out, " Another great 
Union Victory." The last, by the bye, was of Gen- 
eral Thomas, at Somerset, which has gradually sub- 
limed to uncertainty, though be handled his men well, 
and is not bad at a despatch. 

The credulity of the American mind is beyond be- 
lief. Populus vult decipi — and certainly its wishes 
are complied with to the fullest extent. The process 
of a Union victory, from its birth in the first telegram 
down to its dissolution in the last despatch, is curious 
enough. 

Out comes an extra of the " New York Herald " — 
" Glorious Union Victory off Little Bear Creek, Mo. ! 

— Five Thousand Rebels Disposed of ! — Grand 
Skedaddle! — General Pumpkin's Brilliant Charge! 

— He Out-Murats Murat ! — Sanguinary Encoun- 
ters ! — Cassius Mudd's Invincibles ! — Doom of the 
Confederacy ! —Jeff. Davis gone to Texas ! " and so 
on, with a display of large type, in double-headed 
lines, and a profusion of notes of admiration. 

There is excitement in the bar-rooms. The Dem- 
ocrats look down-hearted. The War Christians are 
jubilant. Fiery eyes devour the columns, which con- 
tain but an elaboration of the heading — swelled 
perhaps with a biographical sketch of Brigadier- 
General Cyrus Washington Pumpkin, " who was 
educated at West Point, where he graduated with 
Generals Beauregard and McDowell, and eventually 
subsided into pork-packing at Cincinnati, where he 
was captain of a fine company till the war broke 
out, when he tendered his sword," &c. Cassius 
Mudd's biography is of course reprinted for the 
twentieth time, and there is a list of the names of all 
the officers in the regiments near the presumed scene 
of action. 



12 CANADA. 

Then comes the action : — "An intelligent gentle- 
man has just arrived at Chicago, and has seen Dr. 
Bray, to whom he has given full particulars of the 
fight. It was commenced by Lieutenant Epaminon- 
das Bellows," (son of our respected fellow-citizen, 
the President of the Bellowstown and Bellona Rail- 
way ; — here follows a biography of Bellows,) " who 
was out scouting with ten more of our boys when 
they fell into an ambuscade, which opened on them 
with masked batteries, uttering unearthly yells. 
With Spartan courage the little band returned the 
fire, and kept the Seceshers, who were at least 500 
strong, at bay till their ammunition was exhausted. 
Bellows, his form dilated with patriotism, his mellow 
tones ringing above the storm of battle, was urged to 
fly by a tempter, whose name we suppress. The 
heroic youth struck the cowardly traitor to the earth, 
and indignantly invited the enemy to come on. They 
did so at last. The lieutenant, resisting desperately, 
then fell, and our men carried his body to the camp, 
to the skirts of which they were followed by the 
Secesh cavalry and four guns. Our loss was only 
two more — the enemy are calculated to have lost 
85. The farmers at Munchausen say they were busy 
all day carrying away their dead in carts. 

" On reaching the camp, General Pumpkin thought 
it right to drive back the dastardly polluters of our 
country's flag. He disposed his troops in platoons, 
according to the celebrated disposition made by Mil- 
tiades at Marathon, covering his wings with squad- 
rons of artillery in columns of sub-divisions, with a 
reserve of cavalry in echelon ; but he improved upon 
the idea by adding the combination of solid squares 
and skirmishers in the third line, by which Alexander 
the Great decided the Battle of Granicus. 

" In this order, then, the Union troops advanced till 
they came to Little Bear Creek. Here, to their great 
astonishment, they found the enemy under General 
Jefferson Brick in person (Brick will be remembered 



THE BATTLE OF LITTLE BEAR CREEK. 13 

by many here as the intelligent clerk in our advertise- 
ment department, but he was deeply tainted with 
Secesh sentiments, and on the unfurling of our flag 
manifested them in such a manner that we were 
obliged to dispense with his services). The infamous 
destroyer of his country's happiness had posted his 
men so that we could not see them. They were at 
least three to one — mustering some 7000, with guns, 
caissons, baggage-wagons, and standards in propor- 
tion — and were arranged in an obtuse angle, of 
which the smaller end was composed of a mass of vet- 
erans, in the order adopted by Napoleon with the 
Old Guard at Waterloo : the larger, consisting of 
the Whoop-owl Bushwhackers and the Squash River 
Legion in potence, threatened us with destruction if 
we advanced on the other wing, whilst we were 
equally exposed to danger if we remained where we 
were. 

" General Pumpkin's conduct is, at this most crit- 
ical moment, generally described as being worthy of 
the best days of Roman story. He simply gave the 
word ' Charge ! ' — ' What, General ? ' exclaimed our 
informant. ' Charge ! Sir,' said the general, with a 
sternness which permitted no further question. With 
a yell our gallant fellows dashed at the 'enemy, but 
the water was too deep in the creek, and they retired 
with terrific loss. The enemy then dashed at them 
in turn. They drove our right for three miles ; we 
drove their left for three and a quarter miles. Their 
centre drove our left, and our right drove their centre 
again. They took five of our guns; we took six of 
theirs and a bread-cart. 

" Night put an end to this dreadful struggle, in 
which American troops set an example to the war- 
seamed soldiers of antiquity. Next morning General 
Pumpkin pushed across to Pugstown, and occupied 
it in force. Union sentiment is rife all through Mis- 
souri. We demand that General Pumpkin be at once 
placed at the head of the Army of the Potomac." 



14 CANADA. 

Now all this — in no degree exaggerated — and the 
like of which I have read over and over again, affords 
infinite comfort or causes great depression to New 
York for an hour or so, coupled with an " editorial," 
in which the energy and enterprise of the Scarron 
are duly eulogized, old Greeley's hat and breeches and 
umbrella handled with charming wit and eloquence, 
and the inevitable flight of the Richmond Govern- 
ment to Texas clearly demonstrated. Next day some 
little doubt is expressed as to the exact locality of 
the fight — " Pumpkin's force was at Big Bear, 180 
miles west of the place indicated. We doubt not, 
howo/er, the account is substantially correct, and that 
the Sccesh forces have been pret<^y badly whipped." 

Next day the casualties are reduced from 200 killed 
and 310 wounded to 96 killed and none wounded ; 
and scrutinizing eyes notice a statement, in small 
type, that the " father of Lieutenant Bellows has 
written to us to state his son was not ens^ao^ed on the 
occasion in question, but was at home on furlough." 
And by the time " Another Great Union Victory ! " 
is ready, the fact oozes out, but is by no means con- 
sidered worth a thought, that General Pumpkin has 
had an encounter with the Confederates in which he 
suffered a defeat, and that he has gone into winter 
quarters. 

I do not suppose for a moment that these deceitful 
agencies are exercised only in the North, but am per- 
suaded, from what I know, that the Southern people 
are at least as anxious for news, and as liable to be 
led away by suppressions of truth or distorted nar- 
ratives, as those of the Free States. If we had had a 
telegraphic system and a newspaper press during the 
Wars of the Roses, or the struggle of 1645, it is prob- 
able our partisans, on both sides, would have been 
as open to imposture ; but I do not think they would 
have continued long in the faith that the ever-detected 
impostor was still worthy of credence. 



THE STARS AND STRIPES. 15 



CHAPTER II. 

To the Station.— Stars and Stripes. — Crowd at Station. — Train im- 
peded bv Snow. —Classic Ground. — " iNIanhattan." — " Yonkers." — 
Fellow-Travellers and their Ways. —" Beauties of the Hudson." — 
West Point: their Education, &c. — I.arixe Towns on the Banks of the 
Hudson. — Arrive at East Al!)any. — Delav-an House. — Beds at a Pre- 
mium. — Aspect of Albany not impressive. — Sights. — The Legislature. 

As we drove over the execrable snow-heaps to the 
station, the streets seemed to me unusually dreary. 
The vast Union flags which flapped in the cold air, 
now dulled and dim, showed but their great bars of 
blood, and the stars had faded out into darkness. 

Apropos of the Stripes and Stars, I may say I never 
could meet any one in the States able to account for 
the insignia, though it has been suggested that they 
are an amplification of the heraldic bearing of George 
Washington. Strange indeed if the family blazon 
of an English squire should have become the flaunt- 
ing flag of the Great Republic, which with all its 
faults has done so much for the world, and may yet, 
purged of its vanity, arrogance, and aggressive ten- 
dency, do so much more for mankind ! Not except- 
ing our own, it is the most widely spread flag on the 
seas ; for whilst it floats by the side of the British 
ensign in every haunt of our commerce, it has almost 
undisputed possession of vast tracts of sea in the 
Pacific and South Atlantic. 

At last we got to the end of our very unpleasant 
journey, and approached the York and Albany Ter- 
minus, over an alpine concrete of snow-heaps, snow- 
holes, and street-rails. At the station my coach- 
driver affectionately seized my hand, and bade me 
good-by with a cordiality which might have arisen 



16 CANADA. 

from the sensitiveness of touch in his pahn as much 
as from personal affection. The terminus was 
crowded with citizens (eating apples, lemon-drops, 
and gingerbread-nuts, and reading newspapers) and 
a few men in soldier's uniform, going north — only 
one or two of what one calls in Europe gentlemen 
or ladies, but all well dressed and well behaved, if 
they would only spare the hissing stoves and the 
feelings of prejudiced foreigners. 

The train, with more punctuality than we usually 
observe in such matters, started to the minute, but 
only went ten yards or so, and then halted for nearly 
half an hour — no one knew why, and no one seemed 
to care, except a gentleman who was going, he said, 
to get his friend, "the Honorable Something Ray- 
mond, to do something for him at Albany," and was 
rather in a hurry. When the engine renewed the 
active exercise of its powers, the pace was slow and 
the motion was jerking and uneven, owing to snow 
on the rails, and the obstacles increased as the train 
left the shelter of the low long-stretching suburb 
which clings to it, and is dragged, as it were, out of 
the city with it along the bank of the Hudson. But 
even 181st and 182d streets abandoned their attempts 
to keep up with the rail; and all that could be seen 
of civilization were sundry chimneys and walls and 
uncouth dark masses of wood or brick rising above 
the snow. The lights in the wooden stations shone 
out frostily through the dimmed windows as we 
struggled on. 

We were passing through at night what is to 
Americans classic ground, in spite of odd names : for 
here is " Manhattan " (associated in my mind for- 
ever with a man who, unfortunately for himself and 
me, had a wooden leg, as he planted the iron ferule 
of that insensible member on the only weak point of 
my weaker foot) — and next is " Yonkers," where a 
lady once lived with whom Washington was once in 
love, and several " fights " took place all around, in 



CLASSIC GROUND. 17 

which the Americans were more often beaten than 
victorious ; — " Dobb's Ferry," " Tarrytown " (poor 
Andre ! let those who wish to know all that can be 
known of the " spy" read Mr. Sargent's life of him, 
j3ublished in Philadelphia), which is " nigh on toe 
Sleepy Hollow," where Mr. Diedrich Knickerbocker 
had such a remarkable interview with the ancient 
Hollander; — " Sing Sing," where many gentlemen, 
not so well known to fame, have interviews of a less 
agreeable character with modern American author- 
ities. We are passing, too, by Sunnyside, where 
Washinsfton Trvins: lived. I would rather have seen 
him than all the remarkable politicians in the States 
— old Faneuil, or Bunker's Hill, or all the wonders 
of the great nation ; though I am told he was unbear- 
ably prosy and sleepy of late days. 

Cold and colder it becomes as we creep on, and 
slower creaks the train with its motley freight. The 
men round the stoves " fire up " till the iron glows 
and gives out the heated air to those who can stand 
it, and an unsavory odor, as of baked second-hand 
clothing, and a hissing noise to those beyond the tor- 
rid circle. The slamming of the door never ceases. 
Sometimes it is a conductor, sometimes it is not. 
But no matter who makes the disturbance, he has a 
right to do so. No one can sleep on account of that 
abominable noise, even if he could court slumber in 
a seat which is provided with a rim to hurt his back 
if he reclines, and a ridge to smite his face if he leans 
forward. Apples and water and somebody's lemon- 
drops are in demand ; and vendors of vegetable ivory 
furtively deposit specimens of ingenious manufacture 
but inscrutable purpose in the lap of the unoffending 
stranger, who in his sleepy state often falls a victim 
to these artifices, and finds himself called on to pay 
several dollars for quaint products of the carver, 
which he has unduly detained in his unconscious- 
ness. 

The train arrives at Poughkeepsie, seventy-five 



18 . CANADA. 

miles from New York, .an horn- and a half late. We 
hear that, instead of reaching Albany at 10.30 or 
11 p. M., we shall not be in till 1 or 1.30 a. m., and 
will "lose communications;" therefore we eat in 
desperation at refreshment-rooms large oysters boiled 
in milk out of small basins. In the night once more. 
We have passed West Point long since, and an 
enthusiastic child of nature, who has been pointing 
out to me the " beauties of the Hudson," which is 
flowing down under its mail of ice close to our left, 
has gone to sleep among the fire-worshippers at the 
stove. 

Now, the fact is, that scenery under snow is, I 
may safely affirm, very like beauty under a mask, 
or a fine figure in a waterproof blanket. The hills 
were mere snow-mounds, and the lines of all objects 
were fluffy and indistinct ; and I was glad my eulo- 
gistic friend slept at last. West Point I longed to 
see ; for though its success in turning out great gen- 
erals has as yet not been very remarkable, I had met 
too many excellent specimens of its handiwork in 
making good officers and pleasant gentlemen not to 
feel a desire to have purview of the institution. Had 
I not heard a live general sing " Benny Haven, ho ! " 
— had I not seen Mordecai sitting at the gate of 
Pelissier in vain, and McCiellan and Delafield en- 
gaged in a geological inquiry on the remains of the 
siege of Sebastopol ? Above all, does not West 
Point promise to become something like a military 
academy, in a country such as America is likely to 
be after the war ? 

It is a mistake rather common in England, and in 
Europe, to suppose that a majority, or even a minor- 
ity, of the American generals are civilians. With 
very few exceptions indeed, they have either been 
some time at West Point, or have graduated there. 
In a country which has no established lines to mark 
the difference of classes, which nevertheless exists 
there as elsewhere, there is a positive social elevation 



AMERICAN OFFIERS. 19 

acquired by any man who has graduated at West 
Point ; and if he has taken a high degree, he is re- 
garded in his State as a man of mark, whose services 
must be secured for the military organization and 
public service in the militia or volunteers. 

There is no country in the world where so many 
civilians have received their education in military 
academies without any view to a military ca- 
reer. There are of course many " generals " and 
" colonels " of States troops who have had no pro- 
fessional training, but not nearly so many as might 
be imagined. 

But the great defect under which American offi- 
cers labored until this unhappy war broke out, was 
the purely empirical and theoretical state of their 
knowledge. They had no practical experience. The 
best of them had only such knowledge as they could 
have gleaned in the Mexican war. A man whose 
head was full of Jomini was sent off to command a 
detachment in a frontier fort, and to watch maraud- 
ing Indians, for long years of his life, and never saw 
a regiment in the field. As to working the three 
arms together creditably in the field, I doubt if there 
is an officer in the whole army who could do it any- 
thing like so well as the Duke of Cambridge, or as an 
Aldershot or Curragh brigadier. 

It would be hard for any Englishman to be indif- 
ferent to the advantages of military training in a 
country where every village around could have told 
tales of the helpless, hopeless blundering which char- 
acterized the operations of the British generals here- 
abouts in the War of Independence. Reflecting 
thus, too, I felt less inclined to wonder at the mis- 
takes made by the Federals, and by the Confederates. 
Had the British generals proved more lucky and skil- 
ful, should we now have been passing the towns 
which cluster on the banks of the Hudson, or would 
" monarchy " have impeded the march of life, com- 
merce, and civilization out here ? 



20 CANADA. 

Towns of 5000, 10,000, 20,000, and even of 
30,000 inhabitants rise on the margin of the fine 
river, which in summer presents, I am assured, a 
scene of charming variety and animation, and in 
autumn is fringed by the most beautiful of all beau- 
tiful American landscapes, surcharged with the glo- 
rious colors of that lovely season. Through the dark- 
ness by the bright starlight we could see the steam- 
boats locked fast in the ice, like knights in proof, 
awaiting the signal to set them free for the charge. 
But, ah me ! how weary it was ! — how horrible the 
stoves ! At last and at last the train stopped, and 
finally deposited us at three o'clock in the morning 
on the left bank of the Hudson, at East Albany. 

The city proper lies on the opposite shore of the 
river; and I got, as I was directed, into a long low 
box called the omnibus, which was soon crowded 
with passengers. In a few minutes we were off. 
Then I was made aware that the 'bus was a sleigh, 

and that it was on runners, and Just at that 

moment the machine made a headlong plunge, like a 
ship going down by the bows at sea, and in an in- 
stant more had pierced the depths of darkness, and 
with a crashing', scrunching bump touched the bot- 
tom. " We 're on the river now, I guess," quoth 
one. And so it was. We had shot down the bank, 
which must be higher than one would like to leap, 
even on snow, and were now rolling, squeaking, and 
jerking over the frozen river, amid the groans and 
shrieks and grumbling protests of the ice, which 
seemed in some places to give way as if it were go- 
ing to let us down bodily, and in others to rise up in 
strong ridges to baffle the horses' efforts. Then, after 
a most disagreeable drive, which seemed half-an-hour 
long, — and about thrice as long as it really v/as, I 
suppose, — a prodigious effort of horse-muscle and 
whipping, and of manual labor, accomplished the 
ascent of the other bank, and the vehicle passed 
through the deserted streets of Albany — the capital 



THE DELAYAN HOUSE. 21 

of the great State of New York — to the Delavan 
House, which \Yas open to receive but not to enter- 
tain us. A rush of citizens was made to " the office " 
of the hotel. More citizens followed out of fast- 
arriving vehicles from the train, — -for there was no 
means of getting on till the forenoon, — and all went 
perforce to the Delavan House. 

The hotel office consisted of a counter with a 
raised desk, enclosing a man with a gold chain, a 
diamond stuck in the front of a dress shirt — not as 
pin to a scarf or as a stud, but as a diamond per se, 
after the fashion of those people and of railway con- 
ductors in the land — his hat cocked over one eye, a 
toothpick even at that hour in his mouth, a black 
dress suit of clothes, a dyed moustache and beard 
a la Rowdy Americain, and an air of sovereign con- 
tempt for his customers. The crowd pressed around 
and hurled volleys of questions, — " Can wq have 
beds, sir ? " &c. But the man of Delavan House re- 
plied not. To all their entreaties he returned not a 
word. Bat he did take out a great book and spread 
it on the counter, and putting a pen in the ink he 
handed it to the citizen nearest, who signed himself 
and his State, and asked meekly " if he could have a 
bed at once, as he was so " &c. To him the man 
of Delavan House deigned no reply. The pen was 
handed to another, who signed, and so on — the 
arbiter of our destinies watching each inscription 
with the air of an attorney's clerk who takes signa- 
tures to an attestation. 

There were at least fifty people to sign before me, 
and I heard from a waiter there were only ten beds 
— which on the most ample allowance would only 
accommodate some thirty people — vacant. Were 
the Britishers to be beaten ? Never ! Leaving our 
luggage, we dashed out into the snow. And lo ! a 
house nigh at hand, with lights and open doors. A 
black waiter sallied out at the tramp of feet in the 
hall. He told us, " De rooms all tuk, sar." He was 

2* 



22 CANADA. 

told to be less indiscreet in his assertions, and all the 
time of colloquy the invading Celts and Saxons 
pushed onwards and upwards to the first landing. 
Here were doors standing open. We entered one. 
Three small rooms — beds empty ! no luggage ! 

This will do. " Massa, dis room 's all " " You 

be quiet ! " And the luggage was dragged over by 
our own right hands, eventually aided by the Ethiop. 

I had the satisfaction, as 1 was gliding away with 
my hat'box, to hear the man of Delavan House read- 
ing the book of fate, and selecting his victims at his 
grim pleasure. In fact, the house on which we had 
stumbled was a sort of succursal to the hotel ; and 
the proprietor, afraid of offending so mighty a poten- 
tate, Avas shocked at the idea of letting in any one 
without his leave. What became of the victims I 
know not, but I do know that the beds — though we 
went to them supperless — of the humble hostelry 
were very grateful. 

I went to bed about 4 a. m., with the fixed inten- 
tion of getting up early and visiting the capitol, when 
I could have seen with these eyes the glories of the 

Hon. Raymond as Speaker in the State Hall, 

and have heard something more of the interesting 
proceedings against a New York alderman, who 
accused senators and representatives of being acces- 
sible as Danae to the golden shower, and even to 
greenbacks. 

No man can see the real merits of a city in snow. 
I shall repeat the remark no more ; therefore if I say 
I don't like a place, let the snow bear the blame ; but 
Albany did not impress me when I did get up, and 
the sight of the State Capitol at the top of a steep 
street was so utterly depressing, that I abandoned 
my resolve, and sought less classic ground. What 
have not these Greeks to answer for in this new 
land ? 

There was a comforting contrast to the hideous 
domes and mock porticos, and generally to the ugli- 



THE LEGISLATURE. 23 

ness of the public buildings, in the solid unpreten- 
tious look of the old Dutch-built houses of private 
citizens. Though there is an aspect of decadence 
about Albany, it seems more, far more respectable 
and gentlemanly than its smug, smirking, meretri- 
cious but overwhelming rival, New York. 

I was informed by an American that it was called 
after the second name in the title of James the Sec- 
ond, before he ascended the throne. " Bad as the 
Stuarts were to you, they were a great deal better 
for the colonies," said he, " than your Hanover House, 
and perhaps if you had n't changed them you might 
not have lost us." It was curious to hear an American 
saying a good word for the luckless house, though 1 
am by no means of the opinion that England could 
ever have ruled colonies which were saturated with 
the principles of self-government. 

It was too cold at such a season as this for philo- 
sophical research in a sleigh, and too slippery for 
sauntering; and we were whirled out of the State 
capital without seeing much of it, except church 
steeples, and some decent streets, and the ice-bound 
river studded with hard-set steamers. 

There are, however, in summer time, as I hear, and 
can well imagine, many fine sights to be seen. There 
is the Fall of Cohoes, where the Mohawk River, a 
stream of greater body than the Thames at Rich- 
mond, leaps full seventy feet down into a gulf, whence 
it collects itself to pursue its course to the Hudson. 
There are Shaker settlements, and many communi- 
ties of "isms" and astounding congregations of 
" ists ; " and there are clean Dutch streets, and Dutch 
tenures and customs to this day. With the tenures, 
however, the rule of the majority has made rough 
work ; and the lords in capite, or padroons, have 
suffered pauperization by the simple process of non- 
payment of their rents. 

The Legislature is now in solemn conclave. They 
are investigating charges impliea in the speech of a 



24 CANADA. 

New York alderman, who declared he could get any 
measure passed he liked, by paying the members — 
of course extra-officially, because the payment, per 
se, could only be an agreeable addition to their in- 
come. The Speaker is Mr. Raymond, of the " New 
York Times," who, in spite of or perhaps in conse- 
quence of the opposition of the " Caledonian Cleon," 
his rival, was elected to that high office. It was in 
course of conversation with an American gentleman 
respecting the election, that I learned there was no 
more certain way of succeeding in any contest in the 
State, than to obtain the abuse of the organ under 
that person's control. Be it senator, mayor, or com- 
mon-councilman, the candidate he favors is lost, for 
all respectable people instinctively vote against him. 



MR. SEWARD. 25 



CHAPTER III. 

Unpleasant Journey to Niagara. — Mr. Seward. — The Union and its Dan- 
gers. — Pass Buffalo. — Arrival at Niagara. — A "' Touter." — Bad 
Weather. — The Road. — Climate compared. — Desolate Appearance of 
Houses. — The St. Lawrence viewed from above. — One Hundred Years 
ago. — Canada the great Object of the Americans. — The Weltend Ca- 
nal. — Effect of the F:ills from a Distance. — Gradual approach, — Less 
Volume of Water in Winter. — Different Effect and Dangers in Winter. 
Icicles. — Behind the Cataract. — Photographs and Bazaar. — Visit the 
"Lions" generally. — Brock. — American and Canadian Sides con- 
trasted. — Goat Island. — A Whisper heard. — Mills and Manufactories. 

It was past noon ere the train once more began 
its contest with the snow — now conquering, now 
stubbornly resisted, and brought to a standstill, — 
the pace exceedingly slow, the scenery that of undu- 
lating white table-cloths, the society dull. 

The journey to Niagara was as unpleasant as very 
bad travelling and absence of anything to see could 
make it. The train contained many soldiers or volun- 
teers going back to their people, who discussed the 
conduct of the war with earnestness and acuteness ; 
but though we were so far north, I could not hear 
any of them very anxious about the negro. 

Well-dressed men and women got in and out at 
all the stations, nor did I see persons in the whole 
line of the cars who seemed to have rubbed elbows 
with adversity. Shenectady ! Utica! Syracuse! Au- 
burn ! Here be comminglings ! — the Indian, the 
Phceno - Numidian, the Greek - Sicilian, the Anglo- 
Irish, all reviving here in fair towns, full of wealth, 
commerce, and life. 

The last-named is, I believe, the birthplace, and is 
certainly what auctioneers call the residential abode, 
of Mr. Seward. I remember his Excellency relating 
how, after the Battle of Bull Run, — when he was 
threatened by certain people from Baltimore with 



26 CANADA. 

hanging, as the reward of his misdeeds in plunging 
the country into civil war, — he resolved to visit his 
fellow-citizens and neighbors, to ascertain whether 
there was any change of feeling arnongst them. He 
was received with every demonstration of kindness 
and respect, and then, said he, " I felt my head was 
quite safe on my shoulders." It is but just to say, 
Mr. Seward altogether disclaims the intention of seiz- 
ing on Canada, which has been attributed to him in 
England ; although he certainly is of opinion, that 
the province cannot continue long to be a dependency 
of the English Crown. How long does he think 
California will be content to receive orders from a 
government at Washington ? 

The danger which menaces the Union will become 
far greater after the success of the Unionists than 
it was during the war, because the extinction of the 
principle of States Rights will naturally tend to cen- 
tralize the power of the Federal Government. They 
cannot restore that which they have pulled down. 
In virtue of their own principles, they must maintain 
a strict watch and supreme control over the State 
Governments and Legislatures. Endless disputes 
and jealousies will arise. The Democrats, at once 
the wealthiest and the ablest party in each State, 
will take every opportunity of opposing the central- 
ized Government ; and although the Republicans 
may raise armies to fight for the Union, they will not 
be able .to prevent the stow and certain action of the 
State Legislatures, which will tend to detach the 
States more and more from any federation in which 
their interests are not engaged, and to form them 
into groups, bound together by community of com- 
merce, manufacture, feeling, and destiny. 

Canada must of course accept its fate with the 
rest ; but Englishmen, at least, will not yield it to 
the menaces or violence of the Northern Americans, 
as long as the people of the province prefer being 
our fellow-subjects to an incorporation in the Great 



A NIAGARA TOUTER. 27 

Republic, or any section of it that may be desirous 
of the abstraction. 

I fear we mostly look at Mr. Seward's conduct 
and language from a point which causes erroneous 
inferences. It should be remembered that he is an 
American minister — that he has not only the inter- 
ests but the passions and prejudices of the American 
people to consult, and that, like Lord Palmerston, he 
is not the minister of any country but his own. His 
son, the Under-secretary of State, is the proprietor 
and editor of a journal here, which is conducted with 
the moderation and tact to be expected from the 
amiable character of the gentleman alluded to. 

There was little to be seen of the towns at which 
we halted, and our journey was continued from one 
to the other monotonously enough. The weary creep- 
ing of the train, the foul atmosphere, the delays, how- 
ever inevitable and unavoidable, rather spoiled one's 
interest in the black smoky-looking cities on the 
white plains through which we passed ; and night 
found us still " scrooging on," and occasionally stop- 
ping and digging out. Thus we passed by Rochester 
and the Genesee Falls, which seem extensively used 
up in mill-working, and arrived at Buffalo (278 miles) 
a little before midnight. There we branched off to 
Niagara, which is 22 miles further on. 

Up to this time we had been minded to go to the 
Clifton House, which is on the Canadian side of the 
river, though it is kept by Americans, and of which 
we had agreeable memories in the summer, when it 
was the headquarters of many pleasant Southerners. 
There were only three or four men in our car, one of 
whom was, even under such hopeless circumstances, 
doing a little touting for an hotel at the American 
side. After a while he threw a fly over us and 
landed the whole basket. All the large hotels, he 
said, Vv^ere shut up on both sides of the Falls, but he 
could take us to a very nice quiet and comfortable 
place, where we would meet with every attention, 



28 CANADA. 

and it was the only house we would find open. 
This exposition left us no choice. 

We surrendered oui selves therefore to the tout, 
who was a very different being from the type of his 
class in England, — a tall, pleasant-faced man, with a 
keen eye and bronzed face, ending in an American 
Vandyke beard, a fur collar round his neck, a heavy 
travelling-coat, — from which peered out the ruffles 
of a white shirt and a glittering watch-chain, — rings 
on his fingers, and unexceptionable shoeing. He 
smoked his cigar with an air, and talked as if he 
were conferring a favor. " And I tell you what ! 
I '11 show you all over the Falls to-morrow. Yes, 
sir!" Why, we were under eternal obligations to 
such a guide, and internally thanking our stars for 
the treasure-trove, at once accepted him. 

At the gloomy deserted station we were now shot 
out, on a sheet of slippery deep snow, an hour after 
midnight. We followed our guide to an hostelry of 
the humbler sort, where the attention was not at 
first very marked or the comfort at all decided. The 
night was very dark, and a thaw had set in under 
the influence of a warm rain. The thunder of the 
Falls could not be heard through the thick air, but 
when we were in the house a quiet little quivering 
rattle of the window-panes spoke of its influence. 
The bar-room was closed — in the tawdry foul- 
odored eating-room swung a feeble lamp : it was 
quite unreasonable to suppose any one could be 
hungry at such an hour, and we went to bed with 
the nourishment supplied by an anticipation of feast- 
ing on scenery. All through the night the door and 
window-frames kept up the drum-like roll to the 
grand music far away. 

We woke up early. What evil fortune ! E-ain ! 
fog! thaw ! — the snow melting fast in the dark air. 
But were we not "bound" to see the Falls? So 
after breakfast, and ample supplies of coarse food, 
we started in a vehicle driven by the trapper of the 



THE NEGROES AND THE IRISH. 29 

night before. He turned out to be a very intelligent, 
shrewd American, who had knocked about a good 
deal in the States, and knew men and manners in a 
larger field than Ulysses ever wandered over. 

The aspect of the American city in winter-time is 
decidedly quite the reverse of attractive, but there 
was a far larger fixed population than we expected 
to have seen, and the fame of our arrival had gone 
abroad, so that there was a small assemblage round 
the stove in the bar-room and in the passage to see 
us start. I don't mean to see us in particular, but 
to stare at any three strangers who turned up so sus- 
piciously and unexpectedly at this season. The 
walls of the room in the hotel were covered with 
placards, offering large bounties and liberal induce- 
ments to recruits for the local regiment of volun- 
teers ; and I was told that a great number of men 
had gone for the war after the season had concluded 
— but Abolition is by no means popular in Niagara. 

It was resolved that we should drive round to the 
British side by the Suspension Bridge, a couple of 
miles below, as the best way of inducting my com- 
panions into the wonders of the Falls ; and I pre- 
q)ared myself for a great surprise in the difference 
between the character of the scene in winter and in 
summer. 

For some time the road runs on a low level below 
the river-bank, and does not permit of a sight of the 
cataract. The wooden huts of the Irish squatters 
looked more squalid and miserable than they were 
when I saw them last year — wonderful combina- 
tions of old plank, tarpaulin, tin-plate, and stove- 
pipes. " It's wonderful the settlement does n't catch 
fire !" — " But it does catch fire. It's burned down 
often enough. Nobody cares ; and the Irish grin, 
and build it up again, and beat a few of the niggers, 
whom they accuse of having blazed 'em up. They 
've a purty hard time of it now, I think." 

There are too many free negroes and too manj 



30 CANADA. 

Irish located in the immediate neighborhood of the 
American town, to cause the docti'ines of the Aboli- 
tionists to be received with much favor by the Ameri- 
can population ; and the Irish of course are opposed 
to free negroes, where they are attracted by paper- 
mills, hotel service, bricklaying, plastering, house- 
building, and the like — the Americans monopoliz- 
ing the higher branches of labor and money-making, 
inclnding the guide business. 

At a bend in the road we caught a glimpse of the 
Falls, and I was concerned to observe they appeared 
diminished in form, in beauty, and in effect. The 
cataract appeared of an ochreish hue, like bog-water, 
as patches of it came into sight through breaks in 
the thick screen of trees which line the banks. The 
effect was partly due to the rain, perhaps, but was 
certainly developed by the white setting of snow 
through which it rushed. The expression on my 
friends' faces indicated that they considered Niagara 
an imposition. " The Falls are like one of our great 
statesmen," quoth the guide, " just now. There 's 
nothing particular about them when you first catch 
a view of them ; but when you get close and know 
them better, then the power comes out, and you feel- 
small as potatoes." 

As we splashed on through the snow, I began to 
consider the disadvantages to which the poor emi- 
grant who chooses a land exposed to the rigors of a 
six-months' winter, must be exposed; and I won- 
dered in myself that the early settlers did not fly, if 
they had a chance, when they first experienced the 
effects of bitter cold. But I recollected how much 
better were soil, climate, and communications than 
they are in the sunny South, where, for seven 
months, the heat is far more intolerable than the cold 
of Canada — where the fever revels, where noxious 
reptiles and insects vex human life, and the blood is 
poisoned by malaria, and where wheat refuses to 
grow, and bread is a foreign product. 



THE ST. LAWRENCE. 31 

Even in Illinois the winter is, as a rule, as severe 
as it is in Canada, the heat as great in summer — 
water is scarce, roads bad. It is better to be a 
dweller on the banks of the St. Lawrence than a 
resident in the Valley of the Mississippi, even if 
a tithe of its fabled future should ever come to 
pass. There is no reason why the Canadas should 
be regarded with less favor than the Western States, 
although the winters are long enough : in the prairie 
there is a want of wholesome water in summer, and 
a scarcity of fuel for cold weather, which tend to 
restore the balance in favor of the provinces. 
' The country, which I remembered so riant and 
rich, now was cold and desolate. At the station, 
near the beautiful Suspension Bridge, — which one 
cannot praise too much, and which I hope may last 
forever, though it does not look like it, — the houses 
had closed windows, and half of them seemed empty, 
but the German proprietors no doubt could have 
been found in the lager-beer saloons and billiard- 
rooms. The toll-takers and revenue officers on the 
bridge showed the usual apathy of their genus. No 
novelty moves them. Had the King of Oude ap- 
peared with all his court on elephants, they would 
have merely been puzzled how to assess the animals. 
They were not in the least disconcerted at a group 
of travellers visiting the St. Lawrence in winter- 
time. 

The sight of the St. Lawrence as we crossed over, 
roaring and foaming more than a hundred feet below 
us, and rushing between the precipitous banks on 
which the bridge rests, gave one a sort of ^'frisson : " 
it looked like some stream of the Inferno — the 
waters, black and cold, lashed into pyramids of white 
foam, and seeming by their very violence to impede 
their own escape. Some distance below the bridge, 
indeed, they rise up in a visible ridge, crested with 
high plumes of tossing spray ; but it is related as a 
fact that the steamer " Maid of the Mist," which 



32 CANADA. 

was wont to ply as a ferry-boat below the Falls, was 
let down this awful sluice by a daring captain, who 
sought to save her from the grip of certain legal 
functionaries, and that she got through with the loss 
of her chimney, after a fierce contest with the waters, 
in which she was whirled round and buffeted almost 
to foundering. At that moment the men on board 
would no doubt have surrendered to the feeblest of 
bailiffs for the chance of smooth water. 

About one hundred years ago, the spot where we 
now stood was the scene of continual struggles be- 
tween the Red man, still strong enough to strike a 
blow for his heritage, and the British. It was on the 
14th September, 1764, that the Indians routed a de- 
tachment at Niagara, and killed and wounded up- 
wards of two hundred men ; and their organization 
seemed so formidable that Amherst was glad to make 
a treaty with the tribes through the instrumentality 
of Sir W. Johnston. The colonists then left on us 
the main burden of any difliculty arising from their 
great cupidity and indifference to the rights of the 
natives. In ten years afterwards they were engaged 
in preparing for the grand revolt which gave birth to 
the United States and to the greatest development 
of self-government ever seen in the world. 

As they were setting about the work of wresting 
the New World from the grasp of the monarchical 
system. Cook was exploring the shores of the other 
vast continent in the Southern Sea, where the spirit 
of British institutions, with the widest extension of 
constitutional liberty, may yet successfully vindicate 
the attachment of a great Anglo-Saxon race to the 
Crown. 

There are many in America who think the colonies 
would never have revolted if the French had retained 
possession of Canada, and, indeed, it is likely enough 
the Anglo-Saxons would have held to the connection 
if the Latin race had been sitting upon them north- 
wards ; but the political accidents and the military 



OUR COLONIES. 33 

results which expelled the flenr-de-lis from Canada, 
doubtless created an unnatural bond of union between 
the absolutist Court of St. Germains and the precur- 
sors of Anacharsis Clootz in the colonies. To the 
seer there might have been something ominous in the 
coalition. 

The men who were battling for the divine right of 
kings in Europe could scarce fight for the divine right 
of man in America without danger. The kiss which 
was imprinted at Versailles on Franklin's cheek, by 
the lips of a royal lady, must have had the smack of 
the guillotine in it. 

Anyway, we must allow, the French Canadians, 
who stood by us shoulder to shoulder and beat back 
the American battalions, whose power to invade was 
mainly derived from foreign support, showed they had 
a surprising instinct for true liberty. No doubt they 
would have fought at least as stoutly, had the arro- 
gant colonists been aided by red-coats, for the sake of 
the white banner and the fleur-de-lis j but in the time 
of trouble and danger they stood loyally by the Crown 
and connection of England, and their services in that 
day should not be lightly forgotten. 

It is above all things noteworthy, perhaps, that the 
Americans in all their wars with the mother-country 
have sought to strike swift hard blows in Canada, and 
that hitherto, with every advantage and after con- 
siderable successes, they have been driven, weather- 
beaten back, and bootless home. It was actually on 
the land shaken by the roar of these falling floods 
that battles have been fought, and that the air has 
listened in doubt to the voice of cannon mingling 
with the eternal chorus of the cataract. 

There are here two points at which Canada lies 
open to the invader. The first lies above the Rapids 
— the latter is below them, where the St. Lawrence 
flows into the lake. Three considerable actions and 
various small engagements have taken place on the 
Canadian side of the river, all of which were charac- 



34 CANADA. 

terized by great obstinacy and much bloodshed. Let 
us consider them, and see what can or ought to be 
done in order to guard the tempting bank Vv^hich oflfers 
such an excellent base of operations for future hos- 
tile occupation. 

An inspection of the map will show the Welland 
Canal, running from Port Maitland, Dunnville, and 
Port Colborne, on Lake Erie, to Lake Ontario at 
Port Dalhousie. The command of this canal would 
be of the very greatest importance to an invading 
army, as it would establish a communication inside 
the Falls of Niagara ; but it would be very difficult 
to obtain such a command so as to prevent the de- 
struction of the canal in case of necessity. It is ob- 
vious, however, that the line of it should be defended, 
and that gamsons should be stationed to hold points 
inside the line, such as Erie and Chippewa, to render 
it unsafe for the enemy to move down inside them. 
At Fort Erie there is a very insignificant work; but, 
with that exception, the line of the Welland Canal 
may be considered as perfectly open and defenceless 
— not by any means as utterly indefensible. 

The river is not broad enough to prevent the dwell- 
ers on the banks from indulging in hostilities if they 
pleased ; but no practical advantage would be gained 
in a campaign by any operation which did not settle 
the fate of the Welland Canal. The locks will per- 
mit vessels 142 feet long, with 26 feet beam, and 
drawing 10 feet of water, to pass between Erie and 
Ontario ; and from the latter lake to the sea, or, vice 
versa, they can pass by the St. Lawrence Canal, 
drawing one foot less water. It would be above all 
things important to prevent an enemy getting pos- 
session of this Welland Canal. It would not suriice 
for us to destroy it by injuring a lock or the like, as 
such an act vrould militate against our own lines of 
communication, — more important to us, who have 
an inferior power of transport on the lakes, than it 
would be to the Americans. 



THE CLOUD OVER THE FALLS. 35 

In addition to a well-devised system of field-works, 
it is desirable that permanent fortifications should be 
constructed to cover the termini of the canal and the 
feeder above Port Maitland. At present, the defen- 
sive means of Fort Erie, at the entrance of the river 
above the Rapids, are very poor, and quite inadequate 
to resist modern artillery. However, this subject will 
be best discussed when I come to speak of the general 
defence of Canada. 

This yawning gap is barrier enough between the 
two countries should they ever, unhappily, become 
belligerent, but the banks can be commanded by 
either ; and in case of war the bridge would no 
doubt be sacrificed by one or other, as well as the 
grander structure at Montreal would be, without 
some special covenant. 

When still a mile and a half away, a whirling pil- 
lar of a leaden gray color, with wreaths of a lighter 
silvery hue playing round it, which rose to the height 
of several hundred feet in the air, indicated the posi- 
tion of the Falls. The vapor was more solid and 
gloomy-looking than the cloudlike mantle which 
shrouds the cataract oftentimes in the summer. I 
doubt if there is a very satisfactory solution of its 
existence at all. Of course the cloud is caused by 
particles of water thrown up into the atmosphere by 
the violent impact of the water on the surface, and 
by the spray thrown oft in the descent of the torrent; 
but why those particles remain floating about, in- 
stead of falling at once like rain, is beyond my poor 
comprehension. Sure enough, a certain portion does 
descend like a thick Scotch mist : why not all ? As 
one of my companions, with much gravity and an air 
of profound wisdom, remarked last summer, "It's 
probable electricity has something to do with it I" 
Can any one say more ? 

Assuredly, this ever-rolling mighty cloud draping 
and overhanging the Falls adds much to their weird 
and wonderful beauty. Its variety of form is infinite, 



36 CANADA. 

changing with every current of air, and altering from 
day to day in height and volume ; but I never looked 
at it without fancying I could trace in the outlines 
the indistinct shape of a woman, with flowing hair 
and drooping arms, veiled in drapery — now crouch- 
ing on the very surface of the flood, again towering 
aloft and tossing up her hands to heaven, or sinking 
down and bending low to the edge of the cataract, 
as though to drink its waters. With the aid of an 
active fancy, one might deem it to be the guardian 
spirit of the wondrous place. 

The wind was unfavorable, and the noise of the 
cataract was not heard in all its majestic violence ; 
but as we came nearer, we looked at each other and 
said nothing. It grew on us like the tumult of an 
approaching battle. 

There is this in the noise of the Falls : produced by 
a monotonous and invariable cause, it nevertheless 
varies incessantly in tone and expression. As you 
listen, the thunder peals loudly, then dies away into 
a hoarse grumble, rolls on again as if swelled by 
minor storms, clangs in the ear, and after a while^ 
like a river of sound welling over and irrepressible, 
drowns the sense in one vast rush of inexpressible 
grandeur — then melts away till you are almost 
startled at the silence and look up to see the Falls, 
like a green mountain-side streaked with fresh snow- 
drifts, slide and shimmer over the precipice. 

It may well be conceived with what awe and su- 
perstitious dread honest Jesuit Hennepin, following 
his Indian guides through the gloom of the forest 
primeval, gazed on the dreadful flood, which had 
then no garniture of trimmed banks, cleared fields, 
snug hotels, and cockney gazabos to alleviate the 
natural terror with which man must gaze on a spec- 
tacle which conjures up such solemn images of death, 
time, and eternity. 

No words can describe the Falls ; and Church's 
picture, very truthful and wonderful as to form, can- 



AT THE FALLS. 37 

not convey an idea of the life of the scene — of the 
motion and noise and shifting color which abound 
there in sky and water. I doubt, indeed, if any man 
can describe his o\vn sensations very accurately, for 
they undergo constant change ; and for my own part 
I would say that the effect increases daily, and that 
one leaves the scene with more vivid impressions of 
its grandeur and beauty than is produced by the first 
coup'd^ceil. 

A gradual approach does not at all diminish the 
power of the cataract, and the mind is rather unduly 
excited by the aspect of the Styx-like flood — black, 
foara-crested, and of great volume, with every indi- 
cation of profound depth — which hurries on so 
swiftly and so furiously below the road on which you 
are travelling, between banks cut down through grim, 
dark rock, so sheer that the tops of the upper trees 
which take root in the strata can be nearly touched 
by the traveller's stick. The idea that the whole of 
the great river beneath you has just leaped over a 
barrier of rock prepares one's conception for the 
greatness of the cataract itself. 

In summer time there were wild ducks flying about, 
and terns darted up and down the stream. Now it 
was deserted and desolate, looking of more inky hue 
in contrast with the snow. Close to the boiling cat- 
aract the fishermen's tiny barks might then be seen 
rocking up and down, or the angler sought the bass 
which loves those turbulent depths ; but no such 
signs of human life and industry are visible in winter. 

Before Niagara was, odd creatures enough lived 
about here, which can now be detected fossilized in 
the magnesian limestone. How many myriads of 
years it has been eating away its dear heart and 
gnawing the rock, let Sir Charles Lyell or Sir Roder- 
ick Murchison calculate ; but I am persuaded that 
since I saw it some months ago there has been a 
change in the aspect of the Horseshoe Fall, and that 
it has become more deeply curved. The residents, 

3 



38 CANADA. 

however, though admitting the occurrence of changes, 
say they are very slow, and that no very rapid al- 
teration has taken place since the fall of a great part 
of Table Kock some years ago ; but masses of stone 
may be washed away every day without their know- 
ing it. 

One very natural consequence of a visit in the 
winter was undeniable — that the Falls were visibly 
less : they did not extend so far, and they rolled with 
diminished volume. The water did not look so pure, 
and incredible icicles and hanging glaciers obscured 
the outlines of the rocks, and even intruded on the 
watercourse ; whilst the trees above, laden with snow, 
stood up like inverted icicles again, and rendered it 
difficult to define the boundary between earth, air, 
and water. 

A noiseless drive brought us to the village. Clif- 
ton House was deserted — the windows closed, the 
doors fastened. No gay groups disported on the 
promenade ; but the bird-stufFer's, the Jew's museum, 
the photographer's shed, the Prince's triumphal arch, 
were still extant ; and the bazaars, where they sell 
views, sea-shells, Indian beadwork and feathers, moc- 
casons, stuffed birds, and the like, were open and 
anxious for customers. Our party was a godsend; 
but the worthy Israelite, who has collected such an 
odd museum here, — one, under all the circumstances, 
most creditable to his industry and perseverance as 
well as liberality, — said that travellers came pretty 
often in fine winter weather to look at the cataract. 
We walked in our moccasons to the Table Rock, and 
thence to the verge of the Falls, and gazed in silence 
on the struggling fury of the terrible Rapids, which 
seem as if they wrestled with each other like strong 
men contending against death, and fighting to the 
last till the fatal leap must be made. 

The hateful little wooden staircases, which like 
black slugs crawl up the precipice from the foot of 
the Falls, caught the eyes of my companions ; and 



INSIDE THE FALLS. 39 

when they were informed that they could go down 
in safety and get some way behind the Fall itself, 
the place was invested with a new charm, and ice, 
rheumatism, and the like, were set at defiance. I 
kncAV what it was in summer, and the winter journey 
did not seem very tempting ; but there was no alter- 
native, and the party returned to the museum to pre- 
pare for the descent. 

Whilst we were waiting for our water-proof dresses 
to go under the Falls, we had an opportunity of sur- 
veying the changes produced by winter, and I was 
the more persuaded that the effect is not so favorable 
as that of summer. The islands are covered with 
snow — that which divides the sweep of the cataract 
looking unusually large ; the volume of water, dimin- 
ished in the front, is also deprived of much of its 
impressive force by a decrease in the sound produced 
by its fall. The edges of the bank, covered with 
glistening slabs of ice, were not tempting to the foot, 
and could not be approached with the confidence 
with which they are trod by one of steady nerves 
when the actual brink is visible. 

There were some peculiarities, however, worthy of 
note ; and in a brighter day, possibly the effect of the 
light on the vast ranges of icicles, and on the fan- 
tastic shapes into which the snow is cut on the rocks 
at the margin of the waters, might be very beautiful. 
These rocks now looked like a flock of polar bears, 
twined in fantastic attitudes, or extended singly and 
in groups by the brink as if watching for their prey. 
Above them rose the bank, now smooth and pol- 
ished, with a fringe of icicles — some large as church- 
steeples ; above them, again, the lines of the pine- 
trees, draped in white, and looking like church- 
steeples too. At one side, near Table Rock, the 
icicles were enormous, and now and then one fell 
with a hissing noise, and was dashed on the rock 
into a thousand gliding ice arrows, or plunged into 
the gulf. 



40 CANADA. 

By this time our toilette-room was ready, and each 
man, taldng off his overcoat, was encased in a tar- 
paulin suit with a sou'wester. In this guise we 
descended the spiral staircase, which is carried in 
a perpendicular wooden column down the face of the 
bank near Table Rock, or what remains of it, to the 
rugged margin, formed of boulders now more slippery 
than glass. 

Our guide, a strapping specimen of negro or mu- 
latto, in thick solid ungainly boots, planted his splay 
feet on them with certainty, and led us by the treach- 
erous path down towards the verge of the torrent, 
which now seemed as though it were rushing from 
the very heavens. On our left boiled the dreadful 
caldron from which the gushing bubbles, as if over- 
joyed to escape, leaped up, and with glad efferves- 
cence rushed from the abyss which plummet never 
sounded. On our right towered the sheer precipice 
of rock, now overhanging us, and garnished with 
rows of giant teeth-like icicles. 

After a slow cautious advance along this doubtful 
path, we perceived that the thin edge of the cataract 
towards which we were advancing shot out from the 
rock, and left a space between its inner surface and 
a black shining wall which it was quite possible to 
enter. There was no wind, the day was dull and 
raw, but the downright rush of the water created 
a whirling current of air close to it which almost 
whisked away the breath ; and a vapor of snow, fine 
sleet, and watery particles careered round the en- 
'trance to the recess, which no water kelpie would be 
venturesome or lonesome enough to select, except in 
the height of the season. 

On we thus went, more and more slowly and 
cautiously, over the polished ice and rock, till at last 
we had fairly got behind the cataract, and enjoyed 
the pleasure of seeing the sohd wall of water failing, 
falling, falling, with the grand monotony of eternity, 
so nigh that one fancied he could almost touch it 



PHOTOGRAPHS AND BAZAAR. 41 

with his hand. When last I was here, it was pos- 
sible to have got as far as a ledge called Termination 
Rock ; but tlie ice had accumulated to such an ex- 
tent that the guide declared the attempt to do so 
would be impracticable or dangerous, and indeed 
where we stood was not particularly safe at the mo- 
ment. As I was in the cave, gazing at the down- 
poured ruin of waters with a sense of security as 
great as that of a trout in a mill-race, an icicle from 
the cliff above cracked on the rocks outside, and 
threw its fragments inside the passage. I own the 
desire I had to get on still further and pierce in be- 
hind the cataract, where its volume was denser, was 
greater than the gratification I derived from getting 
so far. But we had reached our ultima thule, and, 
with many a lingering look, retraced our steps — now 
and then halting to contend the better with the gusts 
from the falls, which threaten to sweep one from the 
ledge. If the foot once slipped, I cannot conceive 
a death more rapid : life would die out with the 
thought, " I am in the abyss ! " ere a cry could es- 
cape. 

Whilst returning, another icicle fell near at hand ; 
therefore it is my humble opinion that going to Ter- 
mination Rock in winter is not safe except in hard 
frost, the safer plan being not to go at all. And yet 
no one has ever been swept or has slipped in, I be- 
lieve, and so there is a new sensation to be had very 
easily. The path on our return seemed worse than 
it w^as on our going — a very small slippery ridge 
indeed between us and the gulf; but danger there 
can be but little. As we emerged from the Avooden 
pillar, we submitted to a photographer for our por- 
traits in water-proof. 

Poor man I In summer he has a harvest, perhaps ; 
in winter he gleans his corn with toil and sorrow, 
making scenes for stereoscopes. I am not aware that 
we omitted anything proper to be done ; for we pur- 
chased feather fans — the griffs did — and bead work 



42 CANADA. 

and other " mementos of the Falls," which are cer- 
tainly not selected for any apposite quality. As if the 
Falls needed a bunch of feathers and beads to keep 
them in remembrance! Well, many a time has a 
lock of hair, a withered flower, the feeblest little atom 
of substantial matter, been given as memento ere 
now, and done its office well. 

As I passed by Clifton House on my return to 
the American side, I observed a solitary figure in 
a blue overcoat and brass buttons, pacing rapidly 
up and down under cover of the veranda. Who 
on earth could it be ? It can't be — yes it is — 
it is, indeed, our excellent guardian of British cus- 
toms rights and revenues — good Mr. . The 

kindly old Scotchman stares in surprise when he 
hears his name from an unknown passer-by, but in 
a moment he remembers our brief acquaintance in 
summer time. Every one who .knows him would, 
I am sure, be glad, with me, to hear that some better 

post were got for Mr. in his old age than that 

of watching smugglers on the waters of the St. 
Lawrence, belovx^ Niagara. 

After a brief interview, we proceeded on our way, 
and continued our explorations. Due honor was 
paid to the Eapids, Bath Island, Goat Island, the 
Cave of the Winds, Prospect Tower, and all the 
water lions of the place, though rain and sleet fell 
at intervals all the time when there was no snow. 

When the Prince was here he laid the last stone 
of the obelisk which marks the place where Brock 
was killed, in the successful action against the 
Americans at Queenstown in 1812. The present 
monument to that general is certainly in as good 
taste as most British designs of the sort, and seems 
but little open to the censure I have heard directed 
against it. Its predecessor was so atrociously bad, 
that some gentleman of fine feelings in art, who was 
probably an American and a Canadian patriot as 
well, blew it up some years ago. 



AMERICAN SIDE OF THE FALLS. 43 

There are not wanting at the present time many- 
men in Canada of the same stuff as Brock and his 
men. It is astonishing to find the easy and univer- 
sal conviction prevailing in the minds of Americans, 
contrary to their experience, that the conquest of 
Canada would be one of the most natural and facile 
feats in the world. <v 

Except in their first war, when they displayed 
energy and skill in the attack on Quebec, the active 
operations of the Republicans in Canada were not 
marked by any military excellence, notwithstanding 
the very hard fights which took place, but they showed 
themselves most formidable opponents when they 
were attacked in position. 

The Canadian side of the Falls boasts of charming 
scenery. Even in the snow, the neat cottages and 
houses — the plantations, gardens, and shrubberies — 
evince a degree of taste and comfort which were not 
so observable on the American side, notwithstanding 
the superior activity of the .population. 

Our observations on our return to the right bank 
of the river confirmed my impression concerning the 
diminished volume and effect of the cataract. The 
ice, formed by spray, hung over the torrent, which, 
always more broken and less ponderous than that on 
the other side, is in summer very beautiful, by reason 
of the immense variety of form and color in the jets 
and cascades, and of the ease with which you can 
stand, as it were, amid the very waters of Niagara. 

The tov/n half populated, — the monster hotel 
closed, — the swimming-baths, in which one could 
take a plunge into the active rapids safely enclosed 
in a perforated room, now fastened up for winter, — 
presented a great contrast to the noise and bustle of 
the American Niagara in the season. This is the 
time when the Indians enable the shopkeepers to 
accumulate their stores of bead and feather work ; 
and a few squaws, dressed in a curious compromise 
between the garments of the civilized female and 



44 CANADA. 

the simpler robes of the " untutored savage," flitted 
through the snow from one dealer to another with 
their work. In some houses they are regularly em- 
ployed all day, and come in from their village in the 
morning, and go home at night when their work is 
done. 

The view of the Rapids from the upper end of 
Goat Island is not, to my mind, as fine as that ob- 
tained from the island on the British side, higher 
up. The sight of that tortured flood, loaded with 
its charging lines of " sea-horses," — its surging glis- 
tening foam-heaps streaking the wide expanse which 
rolled towards us from a dull leaden horizon, — was 
inexpressibly grand and gloomy, and struck me more 
forcibly than the aspect of the Rapids had done in 
August, when I beheld them in a setting of rich 
green landscape and forest. 

On the whole, I would much rather, were I going 
to Niagara for the first time, select the Canadian side 
for my first view. It would be well never to look at 
the Falls, if that were possible, till the traveller could 
open his eyes from the remnant of the Table Rock 
on the Great Horseshoe ; but curiosity will probably 
defeat any purpose of that kind. Still, the Horse- 
shoe is grand enough to grow on the spectator day 
after day, even if there be some disappointment in 
the first aspect. The noise, though it shake the earth 
and air, is not of the violent overwhelming character 
which might have been expected fi'om its effect on 
window-panes and shutters. As the voice of a man 
can be heard in the din of battle by those around 
him, so can even the low tones of a clear speaker be 
distinguished most readily close to the brink of a 
cataract, the roar of which at times is very audible, 
nevertheless, from twelve to fifteen miles away. 

The only drawback to a sojourn on the Canadian 
side is, perhaps, the feeling of irritation or unrest 
produced by the ceaseless jar and tumult of the Falls, 
which become wellnigh unbearable at night, and 



PICTURESQUENESS OF THE FALLS. 45 

vex one's slumbers with unquiet dreams, in which 
water plays a powerful part. The American side is 
not so much affected in that way. The Horseshoe 
presents by far the greatest mass of water ; its rush 
is grander — the terrible fathomless gulf into which 
it falls is more awe-inspiring than anything on the 
American side; but the latter offers to the visitor 
greater variety of color — I had nigh said of sub- 
stance — in the water. At its first tremendous blow 
on the seething surface of the basin, the column of 
water seems to make a great cavern, into which it 
plunges bodily, only to come up in myriad millions 
of foaming particles, very small, bright, and distinct, 
like minute, highly polished shot. These gradually 
expand and melt into each other after a wild dance 
in the caldron, which boils and bubbles with its aw- 
ful hell-broth forever. In the centre of the Horse- 
shoe, which is really more the form of two sides of 
an obtuse-angled triangle, the water, being of great 
depth, — at least thirty feet where it falls over the 
precipice, — is of an azure green, which contrasts 
well with the yellow, white, and light emerald colors 
of the shallower and more broken portions nearer 
the sides. 

It would be considered rather presumptuous in 
any one to think of improving upon Niagara, but I 
cannot help thinking that the effect would be in- 
creased immensely if the island which divides the 
cataract into the Horseshoe and the American Falls, 
and the rock which juts up in the latter and sub- 
divides it unequally, were removed or did not exist; 
then the river, in one grand front of over one thou- 
sand yards, would make its leap en masse. The 
American Falls are destitute of the beauty given by 
the curve of the leap to the Horseshoe ; they descend 
perpendicularly, and are lost in a sea of foam, not 
in an abyss of water, but in the wild confusion of 
the vast rocks which are piled up below. But they 
are still beautiful exceedingly, and there is more va- 

3* 



46 CANADA. 

riety of scene in the islands, in the passage over the 
bridges to Goat Island and to the stone tower, which 
has been built amid the very waters of the cataract, 
so that one can stand on the outside gallery and look 
down upon the Falls beneath. 

Goat Island is happily intersected with good drives 
and walks, laid out with sufficiently fair taste through 
the natural forest, and seats are placed at intervals 
for the accommodation of visitors. It is no dispar- 
agement to the manner in which the grounds have 
been ornamented to say that a good English land- 
scape gardener would convert the island into the 
gem of the world. The ornamentation need not be 
overdone ; it should be congruous and in keeping 
with the Falls, which nature has embellished with 
such infinity of coloring. As it is, the island is much 
visited. Strange enough, the softest whispered vows 
can be heard amid the thunder of Niagara, and it 
is believed that many marriages owe their happy 
inspiration to inadvertent walking and talking in 
these secluded yet much-haunted groves. Saw-mills, 
paper-mills, and manufactories delight the utilitarian 
as he gazes on the Rapids which have so long been 
wasting their precious water-power, and it is not un- 
likely that a thriving town may grow up to distress- 
ing dimensions on the American side of the stream, 
at all events. 



w 



AMERICAN PKEJUDICE. 47 



CHAPTER IV. 

Leave Niagara. — Suspension Bridge. — In British Territory. — Hamilton 
City. — Buildings. — Proceed EastAvard. — Toronto. — Dine at Mess. — 
Pay Visits. — Public Edifices. — Sleighs. — Amusement of the Boys. — 
Camaraderie in tiie Army. — Kindly Feeling displayed. — Journey re- 
sumed towards Quebec. — Intense Cold. — Snow Landscape. — IMorning 
in the Train. — Hunger and lesser Troubles. — Kingston, its Rise and 
military Position; Harbor, Dockyards; Its Connection with the Prince 
of Waies's Tour. — The Upper St. Lawrence. — Canada as to Defence. 

We left the Falls with regret — the " city of the 
Falls " without any painful emotion. The people at 
the hotel were perfectly civil and obliging, though 
they bore no particular good-will, perhaps, to one 
whom they had been taught to regard as the bitter 
enemy and ti'aducer of their country and their cause. 

Our guide seemed to pity us for our folly in 
going to such a place as Canada, when we could, 
if we liked, stay in an American hotel in the States. 
He assured us it was " only fit for Irish, French- 
men, and free niggers." The true American of this 
type is perpaps the most prejudiced man in the 
world, not even excepting the old type of the British 
farmer, or men of the Sibthorp epoch. His convic- 
tion of his immense superiority is founded on the 
readiness with which others flock to serve him. By 
their service he becomes a sort of aristocrat in regard 
to all immigrants, and can live without having re- 
course to any menial office or duty. I presume our 
hairy friend never brushed his boots in his life, and 
would sooner wear them dirty forever than stoop 
to the unwonted task. At last came our time to 
depart. 

Our sleighs glided smoothly down to the railway 
station at the Clifton, where the train was waiting 
to take us over the Suspension Bridge. That struct- 



48 CANADA. 

ure is, I fear, too beautiful to last. It requires a 
good deal of coolness and custom to look down 
from it on the fearful flood of the river rolling be- 
low, and mark the vibration as a heavy train passes 
over it. Then, too, there is the influence of cold on 
iron to be considered, the effects of tension, and the 
like : all have been duly provided for ; and yet the 
bridge looks very light and very graceful, and let us 
hope it may be very strong and very lasting. 

In five minutes we were in British territory. The 
first palpable and outward sign of the fact was an 
examination of our luggage by the customs officers 
at a station a few miles from the frontier, during 
which, or by which, one of the party lost a hat and 
its guardian box. The examination was rendered 
as little irksome as possible by the civility of the 
officials ; and it made me quite happy to see the 
crowns on their brass buttons, degraded British sub- 
ject as I was. One burly fellow congratulated me 
on " escaping alive out of the hands of the Yankees, 
— he would not have given a cent for my life for 
the last six months." 

Our journey was not so much impeded by snow 
as we expected. It is forty-three miles from Niagara 
to the rising city of Hamilton, and we were little 
more than one hour and a quarter in doing the dis- 
tance. All I am aware of is that on our Avay we 
passed through vast snow - fields, by the mineral 
waters of St. Catherine's, the frozen canal, and that 
we caught glimpses on our right of the blue expanse 
of Lake Ontario. 

The first sight of Hamilton caused a rapid change 
in my mind respecting the condition of Canada, and 
a most agreeable feeling of surprise. It was evident 
the Americans were not justified in their affected de- 
preciation of the Provinces, if they contained such 
towns as these. Despite the unfavorable circum- 
stances under which it was visited, the city presented 
an appearance of comfort and prosperity which even 



^ 



HAMILTON. 49 

I democratic people might envy, and which scarcely- 
justified the corporation in refusing, as I hear they 
do, to rely on local sources for liquidation of certain 
claims against them. 

Fine-looking streets, a forest of spires, important 
public buildings, did no discredit to the old standard 
which floated over the Custom-house near the sta- 
tion. And yet it was not possible to help remarking 
that the pa.*^sengers in the train were reading Ameri- 
can, not Canadian, newspapers. They were enjoying 
the fruits of American piracy in their more serious 
studies. The literary thefts of the sanctimonious 
Harpers, who play forever on the moods and tenses 
of the verb to steal, were in the hands of all the 
people who were reading books. 

Not alone the British flag did we see at Hamilton, 
but the British soldier ; for at the doorway of the 
hotel were two well-known faces. A battalion of 
the Rifle Brigade was expected every moment, and 
two officers had been sent on to provide for their re- 
ception, as there were no barracks to receive the 
force, and they were hunting up house-owners to let 
their premises on the instant. It may be imagined 
that house-owners take a favorable view for them- 
selves of the value of property thus suddenly in re- 
quest ; and the officers were proportionately indig- 
nant with those^ griping Canadians, as if they would 
have met different treatment from English colonists 
anywhere. 

Hamilton is a city of some 20,000 inhabitants. 
It is on a bay (Burlington), which runs in at the 
west of Lake Ontario north of the peninsula formed 
by the lake, by the St. Lawrence, by Lake Erie, and 
by the river falling into Erie at Maitland. It is on 
the rail between the west from Detroit and London, 
the southeast from the States, and the east from 
Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec. In event of war 
it is exposed to an attack by any American gunboat 
from the harbors on the south shore of Lake Ontario, 



50 CANADA. 

and yet, to the best of my belief, it is utterly desti- 
tute of defence, and has not even a martello tower 
for its protection. 

The name is not fifty years old, and twenty years 
ago Hamilton had less than 4000 inhabitants. Its 
growth bears no comparison with that of some Amer- 
ican cities, but it is still very remarkable, and its 
wealth, importance, and defencelessness are quite 
sufficient to make it an object of attack. The houses 
are built of stone. Banks, hotels, manufactories, 
churches — well constructed and handsome — give 
proof of the prosperity of the community ; and the 
residence there of Sir Alan MacNab, who lived some- 
where in the vicinity in a bran new mediaeval castle, 
should be some guaranty for their loyalty. Indeed, 
I was told that in no place had the Prince a more 
gratifying or enthusiastic reception. 

But men without discipline, organization, or defen- 
sive works can do but little against gunboats. It is 
true that Hamilton would not be of much service to 
the enemy, as it would not command the communi- 
cations ; but its possession by them would be very 
embarrassing, and its desti'uction, for lack of means 
to defend it, would be very discreditable. The pop- 
ulation ought to yield at least 4000 able-bodied men 
for local service ; and a casemated work, armed with 
powerful guns, could keep a mere mischief-seeking 
gunboat at proper distance, and save the place from 
destruction or injury. 

Our halt at Hamilton v/as brief, and soon we were 
on our way eastwards once more, skirting the shores 
of the lake, fenced in by a monotonous line of snow- 
laden fir-trees and palings. The people who got in 
and out at the stations were of a different race from 
the Americans — stouter and ruddier of hue, and 
many of them spoke with a Scotch or Irish accent, 
the former predominating. They did not talk much 
about anything but the w^eather, and did not give 
themselves concern about anything except the winter 



TORONTO. 51 

and its prospects, having made up their minds long 
ago that there was to be no fight between England 
and the United States. 

Just as it became dusk we reached Toronto, hav- 
ing accomplished the thirty-eight miles in two hours; 
but late as it was, we could make out the picturesque 
outlines of a large city. Close to the station a line 
of sleighs, and a mass of well-dressed people drawn 
up by the margin of a sheet of ice, on which a skated 
crowd were whirling about, gave an air of gayety to 
the place. 

A sharp smart sleigh-drive, and we were at the 
comfortable hotel called Rossin House, where an in- 
vitation from the officers of Her Majesty's 30th to 
dinner was awaiting us. They were quartered in a 
substantial old-fashioned barrack on the shore of 
Lake Ontario, some distance outside the city. The 
barracks are surrounded by an earthen parapet, pro- 
vided with traverses and embrasures, and there is a 
very quaint and fantastic earthen redoubt on the 
beach, but any ordinary vessel of war could lay the 
whole establishment in ruins with perfect impunity 
in half an hour. 

The mess-table was surrounded by an unusual 
number of old Crimean officers, and I was glad to 
find the fears I had entertained, that the inducements 
offered by the Americans to soldiers to desert, had 
not as yet given any considerable increase to the ten- 
dency in that direction, which causes such anxiety 
to regimental officers stationed near the frontier. 
Whilst I remained at Toronto, I dined daily at the 
same hospitable board. 

A snapping fierce wind, laden with icy arrows, set 
in the day after our arrival. In the afternoon, how- 
ever, I sleighed out and visited the bishop, one of the 
most lively, agreeable men conceivable, of the age 
of ninety or thereabouts ; Mr. Brown, who is one of 
the powers of the State, and the editor and owner of 
the ablest paper in West Canada; the mayor, and 
other Torontians of eminence. 



52 CANADA. 

The city is so very surprising in the extent and 
excellence of its public edifices, that I was fain to 
write to an American friend at New York to come 
up and admire what had been done in architecture 
under a monarchy, if he wished to appreciate the 
horrible state of that branch of the fine arts under his 
democracy. Churches, cathedrals, market, post-ofiice, 
colleges, schools, mechanics' institute, rise in impe- 
rial dignity over the city ; but there was a visible 
deterioration in the beer and billiard saloons, and the 
drinking exchanges. The shops are large, and well 
furnished with goods, and trade even now is brisk 
enough, considering the time of the year. All this 
is within an enemy's grasp, and more, than this, the 
command of the railway east and west. 

In this winter time the streets are filled with 
sleighs, and the air is gay with the carolling of their 
bells. Some of these vehicles are exceedingly ele- 
gant in form and finish, and are provided with very 
expensive furs, not only for the use of the occupants, 
but formere display. The horses are small, spirited 
animals, of no great pretension to beauty or breed- 
ing. The people in the streets were well dressed, 
comfortable-looking, well-to-do, — not so tall as the 
people in New York, but stouter and more sturdy- 
looking. Their winter brings no discomfort; for fuel 
is abundant and not dear, and when the wind is not 
blowing high, the weather is very agreeable. 

Here, again, I observed that the young people 
have a curious custom of going about with small 
sleighs, which are, to the best of my belief, called 
" tarboggins," though I did not see them indulge in 
the practice by which the youth of New York vex 
and fret the drivers of all vehicles in sleighing-time. 
I have been amused by observing the urchins in the 
Empire City prowling about with these primitive 
sleighs, watching for an opportunity to exercise their 
talents. Fortunate it is for the British coachman 
that the youth of these islands are not acquainted 



TARBOGGINING. 53 

with this pleasing mode of locomotion. Our omni- 
buses, having a conductor behind, would be better 
defended than the American vehicles, which have no 
such protection ; but the four-wheeled cabs would 
fall a helpless prey into their hands. 

The sport is carried on in this wise : the youths 
take their tarboggin or sleigh, — a flat piece of board 
four feet long, with or without runners, will do ; 
through a hole at one end is attached a piece of 
cord. The boys watch their opportunity, and when 
a vehicle passes, noiselessly on the snow they run 
out, slip the cord over the iron or any projection of 
the carriage behind, and, holding the end fast, throw 
themselves down on their sleigh, which is dragged 
along by the vehicle ; and if cabby should arise in 
his wrath, in an instant the end of the cord is let go, 
and the young navigator, starting to his feet, runs 
off with his instrument of torture in search of a new 
victim. It adds much to this entertainment for one 
boy to catch hold of the leg or the sleigh of another 
boy, so that a string of four or five youths may be 
seen in full enjoyment of the recreation. Bless them ! 
If I had not seen them following this sport, I should 
have fairly doubted if there were any boys in the 
United States. 

If there was not all the cordiality which could be 
desired between the natives and the military, no fault 
could be found with the full measure of hospitality 
dealt out to their own countrymen by the officers of 
the garrison. Removed from the stiffness of home 
stations, the genial, kindly character of our young 
soldiers expatiates, in despite of middling cookery and 
colonial wines, and keeps open house for friends on 
foreign service. When sleighing for the day is over, 
and the skating party has come to an end, it is hard 
indeed for poor Jones to think of anything more than 
his dinner ; but if he made the most of his opportu- 
nities, he might write a book in the solitude of his 
barrack, as those famous prisoners have done whfwp 



54 CANADA. 

brains have conceived and brought forth such brill- 
iant works in the darkness of the Tower. 

The snows are wellnigh as binding and environ- 
ing for a third of the year in bad seasons, and no 
doubt something would come of it all, but that 
the officer has his duties to attend to, and cannot 
escape from Private lOOO's stoppages, grievances, or 
failings. Now, it is no easy matter indeed for British 
officers to be very great friends in the same regiment. 
Of course you will find Pylades and Orestes there ; 
but you may be sure, if you do, they are men who 
have no clashing interests, no contest of purses, no 
conflicting views about leave or steps. It is to me 
quite wonderful, all things considered, how braveiy 
the natural kindliness of our officers contends against 
a system which, with all its advantages, creates a 
source of rivalry and jealousy not known in other 
services. 

In a promotion-by-seniority service there can of 
course be no feeling against a man on the part of his 
juniors because he happens to be older ; but no one 
can well brook the greater fortune which depends on 
the command of money, — though he may be willing 
to seize on it, if he can, by the same means, — in the 
case of his own juniors. I do not speak without 
some small knowledge when I say that there is a 
much larger amount of camaraderie in our service 
than ought to be found in it, but that there is much 
less than exists in some other armies. The French 
officer is jealous of the man promoted by merit, for 
the declaration of that superiority is a tacit censure 
on himself, and he is also prone to take umbrage at 
the good fortune of the iminortels of the Mat major ; 
but he has little ground for antipathy to any of his 
own set, as regards social position or military rank 
in the corps. 

Our strong love of field-sports also tends to create 
small difficulties when at home, from which spring 
other causes of estrangement. One man, for in- 



TORONTO. 55 

stance, wants to get to the spring- meeting when 
another is burning for the spring-fishing — shooting- 
leaves and hunting-leaves clash together, though in 
no army in the world is there such a liberal system 
of furlough as in our own. These causes do not 
operate in Canada, where there is now, in fact, but 
little sport of any kind within easy distances. Moose 
shooting in snow is slow work, and for other game 
the sportsman must wander far and wide. But when 
the table is set, and the full tide of conversation flows, 
what a cheery group of warriors, young and old, may 
be seen in Canadian quarters ! They have had 
sleighing parties and skating adventures, and alto- 
gether have got over the day somehow, and are pre- 
pared to look pleasantly on the world, albeit the snow 
is two feet deep over it. 

As to the position afforded by the buildings in these 
particular old barracks in Toronto, no more uncom- 
fortable place could well be imagined in face of an 
enemy. The defences are so ludicrous that a Chinese 
engineer would despise them. Certainly, we have no 
right to laugh at Americans, or to hold their works 
in petto, if we take one glance at the fortifications of 
Toronto ; and yet, as will be seen, it is a place of 
the very greatest importance. 

My stay here would have been longer, perhaps, 
but that I was informed of a very kindly intention 
on the part of the people which I did not desire to 
have carried out, at all events under the existing cir- 
cumstances — being in hopes that a future opportu- 
nity would occur of proving thatt I was not indiffer- 
ent to the good feeling and very flattering sentiments 
of the gentlemen who had commenced the movement 
towards myself; and so, in the sure hope that I would 
be back in Toronto ere I left America, I bade my 
good friends good-by, never, as it proves, in all likeli- 
hood to see them again, and, in the midst of a snow- 
fall, resumed my journey with my companions 
towards Quebec. 



56 CANADA. 

After undergoing a year of obloquy, ill-looks, slan- 
der, and popular disfavor in a great country, it was 
very pleasant to meet with such marks of good-will 
and kindness from one's countrymen and fellow- 
subjects on the same continent ; and it was quite as 
gratifying to know that such feelings were entertained 
by them, as it would have been to receive the out- 
ward token of their existence, which alone would have 
contented my friends. 

The evening on which I left Toronto was intensely 
cold. Never for a moment had the snow and frost 
relented, and a wind of piercing keenness swept up 
the frozen dust in thick clouds, which peneti*ated 
every chink. The railway officials did their best for 
us, and the stove in the carriage was poked up to 
excessive energy ; but the heat of these calorifiers is 
worse than cold itself. 

Our way lay through a snow-field bordered by 
snow-hills, or by the stiff cones of snow-covered firs. 
Our fellow-passengers were big men in fur-coats and 
thick boots, who were given to silence and sleep. 
Slowly the train creaked through the soft barrier 
which so gently yet stiffly opposed the tramp of the 
iron horse. The landscape was simply nothing to see. 
It looked as if one were going forever through a 
vast array of newly washed sheets spread over the 
whole country. Darkness fell suddenly out of the 
skies on the whiteness, but still could not darken it. 
The whiteness shone through the depths of night, 
and flashed out in streaks of dazzling light, as the 
flare of the engine-^res and of the lamps shot out 
over the surface. And so it came to pass that at last 
we went to sleep, gathering up rug and great-coat and 
wrapper into vast mounds, from which issued many 
a spiritus asper and susurrous sounds for the livelong 
night. 

On waking up it seemed as though day had just 
dawned, but the watch said it was nearly eight 
o'clock. A cold white light, filled with rime, bat- 



FOUL AIR. 57 

tied through the frost on the windows of the carriage, 
which was spread over the glass like beautiful damas- 
cened white table-cloths. Scraping away a lovely 
trellis pattern with my nail, I opened a space of clear 
transparent ocean in the ice-sea, and was rewarded 
for my pains by a view of a cloud of snow which had 
been falling all night, and now rested deep on the 
ground, and turned the pines and firs bounding the 
line of rail into ragged white tumuli. 

The train still creaked and bumped now and then 
over the snow, squeaked, puffed, and grated, and at 
last came to a standstill, again went on, and again 
halted. At last we reached a station. Seven hours 
behind time! A sensation of hunger by no means 
slight fell upon us. Frost is an appetizer of un- 
doubted merit. We had neglected laying in a viati- 
cum. More prudent and accustomed travellers pro- 
duced flasks and brown-paper parcels, and all the 
wonderful things which Americans consume on the 
voyage. Let me not be fastidious, however; for 
after a time I envied men who weae discussing pleas- 
antly fragments of unseemly cakes, spice-nuts, and 
brandy-balls for breakfast. 

My companions prowled up and down the horrid 
car, reeking with the stove-drawn odors of many 
bodies during the night — they sought food like young 
lions. Pah ! what an atmosphere it was ! — all win- 
dows closed by reason of cold intense outside, the 
hateful stoves, one in the centre of the car, and one at 
each end, heated almost to redness, surrounded by 
men who crowded up, and chewed tobacco, and 
smote the iron surface with hissing burntsienna- 
colored jets I — frowsty, fusty, and muggy exceed- 
ingly. There was a deposit of train-oil, — a hot 
humanized dew all over us. And water, there was 
none to wash with. So I applied a handful of snow 
gathered on the carriage platform to my face and 
hands in lieu thereof, and got back to my seat just 
as A n returned from some distant part of the 



58 CANADA. 

train with hands full of apples. They were delicious, 
and with three or four of them, and a few cigars, we 
managed to construct a charming breakfast. 

It was so dark when the train reached Kingston, 
that we could see nothing more than the outlines 
of the station. I was exceedingly anxious to visit a 
place of so much importance historically, commer- 
cially, and strategically, and fully intended to remain 
there for some days on my return to Toronto ; but 
the Fates ordained that it was not to be, and ail my 
personal knowledge of Kingston was derived from 
that glimpse in the dark of the railway terminus, 
and certain steeples and spires rising above the snow. 
But the position of the city confers upon it a very 
high place on the list of military posts for the defence 
of Canada, and some considerations connected with 
it will be discussed hereafter. 

Politically Kingston has become a dead body since 
1844, when its short-lived career as the capital and 
seat of government was cut short. The military 
genius of the Frei)ph occupants in early days, in seiz- 
ing on the best positions for the defence and main- 
tenance of their conquest, is shown still, by the fact 
that our forts occupy the sites of those which were 
originally constructed by them. More than a hun- 
dred years before there was any trace of a city at 
Kingston, or any building save the wigwam of the 
Indian or the log-huts of the soldiery, the Count de 
Frontenac built a fort in communication with the 
great system, from the St. Lawrence to the Ohio, of 
the French strongholds, which was destined to 
extend to the Mississippi, and to enclose the trouble- 
some English Colonies within stringent limits. 
When this fort was captm-ed by Colonel Bradstreet 
in 1756, the French had only established a kind of 
military colony and a very insignificant trading- post 
round the fort. In little more than twenty years 
subsequently the present town was founded; and in 
the war with America the place became of very 
great consequence. 



KINGSTON. 59 

It is a fact curious enough, and worthy of some 
consideration, that the great war in the middle of the 
last century, which ended in the loss to France of her 
hopes of Indian influence and of empire, and in the 
seizure of her American Colonies by Great Britain, 
should have, according to the best of American 
statesmen and philosophical reasoners, led also to the 
establishment of the United States, and the founda- 
tion of the greatest Republic the world has ever seen. 

Kingston commands the entrance to the Rideau 
Canal, one of the principal means of communication 
between Lake Ontario and the interior of the country, 
forming an admirable connection between the Ottawa 
River and Lake Ontario : it is, in fact, the most im- 
portant means of inland intercourse, because the 
difficulties in the way of an enemy are very con- 
siderable, either in a direct attack upon Kingston, if 
properly fortified, or in a flank movement against it 
from the interior. 

The canal is brought into working order with the 
Grand Trunk Railway ; so that if the Americans, our 
only possible enemy, were to make demonstrations 
against our frontier and our lines, with a view of in- 
tercepting our supplies and internal relations between 
the east and west of the province, it would be easy to 
disembark men and munitions at Kingston Mills and 
forward them by railway. Kingston, again, is an ex- 
cellent point of observation, and with proper defences 
and aggressive resources, ought to command Lake 
Ontario and the entrance from the St. Lawrence. 
An adequate force stationed there, with a proper 
flotilla, could effectually keep in check any hostile 
demonstration from Cape Vincent, Sacket's Harbor, 
or the other posts from Oswego to the western ex- 
tremity of Lake Ontario. 

The harbor is said to be excellent ; there is a dock- 
yard, which could be rendered capable of doing most 
of the work required for our light gunboats ; and 
with the additions pointed out and urged by our en- 



60 CANADA. 

gineer officers to the existing fortifications, Kingston 
could be made a position of as much military strength 
as it undoubtedly now is of strategical importance. 

Between Toronto and Kingston there are, however, 
Port Hope, Coburg, and Belville on the line of rail- 
way, all of which present facilities for the landing of 
an enemy : at any one of these points a hostile oc- 
cupation would cut the regular communications at 
once ; and indeed it is very much to be regretted, in 
a military point of view, that engineering, commer- 
cial, or other considerations caused the makers of the 
Grand Trunk Railway to run the line close to the 
shores of a great inland sea, the opposite side of which 
belongs to a foreign country which has from time to 
time announced (if not through the lips of statesmen, 
by the popular voice) that the conquest of Canada is 
a fixed principle in its policy. 

The Americans, whether by accident or design, 
have constructed the New York Central, which runs 
along the south coast, at a distance of many miles 
from Lake Ontario, but cross-lines connect it with 
the principal ports upon the lake, from Buffalo to 
Sandusky ; their line runs tolerably close to the shore 
of Lake Erie higher up, but there is no position on 
that lake which has to fear the aggression of such a 
force as could be collected at Kingston. 

Perhaps to the generality of people in England, 
Kingston was first made known by the unpleasant 
incidence which compelled the Prince of Wales to 
pass it unvisited, or rather to remain on board the 
steamer. No doubt the Orangemen are now very 
sorry for what they did, and, in fact, feel that they 
were led by the fanaticism or the desire for notoriety 
of some small local leaders to make themselves very 
ridiculous and offensive. The zeal of these Defenders 
of the Faith was no doubt stimulated by the presence 
of a large number of Irish Roman Catholics, who are 
at least as violent as their opponents. 

The French Canadians, with just as much fidelity 



THE RAILWAY LINES. 61 

to their faith, do not enter into the violent polemical, 
political, and miscalled religious controversies which 
led to such an unseemly result at Kingston ; and cer- 
tainly, it is much to be regretted that the peculiar in- 
fluence of American institutions, which checks any 
attempt of religious parties to disturb the public peace 
or social relations for their own purposes and for the 
gratification of pride or lust of power, cannot be ex- 
tended to the provinces and to the British Possessions, 
where they work such prodigious mischief. 

From Kingston the line winds along the shore of 
the great lake - like river, studded with a thousand 
islands. Here, again, the Americans would possess 
considerable advantage in case of war, as their main 
line is far inland, but branch-lines from it lead to 
Cape Vincent and Ogdensburgh, at right-angles to 
our line of communication. The American water- 
boundary, I believe, passes outside a considerable 
number of the more important islands ; but the power 
which possesses naval supi;emacy on Lake Ontario 
will probably find the means of commanding the 
Upper St. Lawrence, no matter which belligerent 
establishes himself on the islands. 

The Canadians with whom I conversed in the 
train declared they were quite ready to defend their 
country in case of invasion, but did not understand, 
they said, being taken away to distant points to fight 
for the homes of others. It seemed quite clear to 
them that the United States would only invade 
Canada to humiliate and weaken the mother-country, 
and that the general defence of the province ought to 
devolve on the power whose policy had led to the 
war ; whilst the inhabitants should be ready to give 
the imperial troops every assistance in the localities 
where they are actually resident. 



62 CANADA. 



CHAPTER V. 

Arrive at Cornwall. — The St. Lawrence. — Gossip on India. — Aspect ot 
the Coimtiy. — JMontreal. — The St. Lawrence Hall Hotel. — Stors'^ of 
a Guardsman. — Biimside. — Dinner. — Refuse a Banquet. — Flags. — 
Climate. — Salon-a-mnnger. — Contrast of Americans and English. — 
Sleighs. — The "Driving Club." — The Victoria Bridge. — Uneasy 
Feeling. — Monument to Irish Emigrants. — Irish Character. — Montreal 
and New York. — The Rink. — Sir F. Williams. — Influence of the 
Northerners. 

It was noon ere we reached Cornwall, a place 
some seventy miles from Montreal, where a rough 
restaurant at the station enabled us to make a sup- 
plement to the deficiencies of our simple repast. The 
people who poured in and out of the train here were 
fine rough-looking fellows, with big, broad, sallow 
faces and large beards, wrapped up in furs, wearing 
great long boots, — men of a new type. Several of 
them were speaking in French ; but the literature 
which travelled along with us was American, mostly 
New York, in the matter of periodicals : it was of 
course English, and pirated, in the most substantial 
forms. The frost still clung to the outside of the 
windows ; inside, the foliage and broad tracery of 
leaves, and cathedral-aisles, and plumes of knight 
and lady, tumbled down in big drops, and by degrees 
the sun cleared away the crust on one side, so that 
we could look out on the flat expanse of snow-covered 
forest. 

On our right, now and then glimpses could be 
caught of a pale blue ribbon-like streak across the 
dazzling white plain. " That 's the St. Lawrence 
you see there. Pitty it 's friz up so long. We 
would n't envy the Yankees anything they've got to 
show us if we had a port open all the year," quoth an 
honest Canadian beside me. For the first time I 
began to feel sympathy for a country that " can't get . 



ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 63 

out" for five mortal months, and that breathes 
through another man's nostrils and mouth. A hor- 
rible semi-suffocated sort of existence. No wonder 
the Canadians look longingly over at that bit of land 
which Lord Ash burton yielded to the United States 
and the State of Maine. 

A n and I, by way of counteracting the influ- 
ence of the atmosphere and external sceneiy, talked 
of India. Some poor creatures half the world's girth 
away, whom we were speaking of at that moment, 
would have given a good deal for some of the despised 
ice and snow around us, groaning no doubt under 
that sun which even in February knows no coolness 
in Central India in mid-day. How oddly things turn 
up I I had ever firmly believed that a young soldier 
friend of mine had slain many enemies in that great 
rebellion, and had, Achilles-like, sent many souls of 
sepoys to Hades, and so in that faith speaking, sud- 
denly I was interrupted by A n. " What are you 

talking of? He kill so ??i<2W?/ budmashes at Nulla- 
NuUah ! Why, I don't believe he ever fired a shot or 
made a cut at a nigger in his life." My fierce little 
friend had done both, and many a time and oft. And 
so, as he knew, away went a reputation, within thirty 
miles of Montreal ; thermometer 10.'^ 

Hereabouts were seen many snug homesteads ris- 
ing up through the snow, with farm-houses, and out- 
houses — all clad in the same livery. The country 
looked well cleared and settled ; sleighs glided over 
the surface, and were drawn up at the stations to 
carry passengers and luggage. Anon we came upon 
a great frozen river, and crossed it by a series of 
arches too great for a bridge ; but this was neverthe- 
less the Ottawa itself rolling away under its ice 
coat, as the blood flows through an artery, to rush 
unseen into the cold embrace of the St. Lawrence. 
These two great bridges must be worth visiting 
when they can be seen in the full exercise of their 
functions. The river forms an island here which the 
ice now continentalizes. 



54 CANADA. 

About four o'clock, very much as land looms up in 
the ocean, we saw the dark mass of Montreal rising 
up in contrast to the whitened Mountain at the foot 
of which it lies ; the masts of vessels frozen in, and 
funnels of steamers, mingled with steeples and 
domes ; and as the sun struck the windows a thou- 
sand flashes of glowing red darted back upon us. 
Then the train ran past a " marine factory," what- 
ever that may be, and a suburb of stone and wooden 
houses intermixed, and a population of children 
whose faces looked preternaturally pale, perhaps from 
the reflection of the snow, and of women in pork-pie 
hats with thick veils over their faces, and of men, 
mostly smoking, in great fur coats and boots ; and at 
last the train reached the terminus, where a great 
concourse of sleigh-drivers, who spoke as though 
they had that moment left Kingstown jetty, Ireland, 
claimed our body and property. These were promptly 
routed by the staff* of the St. Lawrence Hall, who 
carried off our party to an omnibus without wheels, 
which finally bore us off to the hotel so called. 

The soldiers about the streets were all comfortably 
clad in dark overcoats, fur caps with flaps for the 
ears, and long boots ; but the dress takes from their 
height, and does not conduce to a smart soldier-like 
appearance. 

The streets through which we passed were lined 
with well-built lofty houses. It might scarce be 
fancy which made me think that Montreal was better 
built than American cities of the same size. In the 
great cold hall of the hotel there was excessive 
activity : befurred officers of the regiments sent to 
Canada during the Trent difficulty, before Mr. Sew- 
ard had made up his mind and persuaded the Presi- 
dent to give up the Southern envoys, were coming 
in, going out, or were congregated in the passage. 
Orderlies went to and fro with despatches and office 
papers. In fact the general-in-chief, Sir Fenwick 
Williams of Kars, and staff, the commanding officer 



TABLE-D'HOTE. 65 

of the Guards, Lord G. Paulet, and staff, were 
quartered here, and carried on their office business ; 
and the Commissary- General, Power, and the Prin- 
cipal Medical Officer, Dr. Muir, were also lodging in 
the hotel, with a host of combatant officers of infe- 
rior grade. 

Tiiere was no rush to the table-dlwte^ after the 
American fashion, but the dinner itself was very- 
much in the American style. I was much amused 
at the distress of a Guardsman who made his ap- 
pearance at the doorway during dinner, with a letter 
in his hand for one of the officers. He halted stiffly 
at the threshold, and stood staring at the brilliancy 
of the splendid ormolu ornaments, and the array of 
lacquered chandeliers and covers. In vain the wait- 
ers pointed out to him the officer he sought; he 
would not intrude on the gorgeous scene, nor would 
he trust his missive to another hand. At last, after 
gazing in a desperate manner on space, and balanc- 
ing from one leg to another, he took a maddening 
resolve, put his hand to his cap, held the other out 
with the letter in it as his dumb apology and in mit- 
igation of punishment, and marching straight to his 
mark, trampling crowds of waiters in his way, only 
halted when he came up to the table he sought, 
where, with eyeballs starting, he put the missive to 
the level of the captain's nose, saluted, and ejacu- 
lated, " By order of Colonel Jones, sir." — " All right." 
With a wheel round and a salute, the perturbed 
warrior countermarched and escaped into the pro- 
saic outward world. A Frenchman would have 
come in with the most perfect self-possession, and 
possibly with some little grace. An American would 
probably have turned his chew, have addressed some 
remarks to the waiters on his way, have given the 
captain a tap on the back or a nudge of the elbow, 
and would rather have expected a drink. And 
which of the three, after all, is to be preferred ? 

I me. a whole regiment of men I knew, and after 



66 CANADA. 

dinner adjourned with some of them to my rooms. 
They all growled of course, found fault with Canada 
and abused the Government, and seemed to think it 
ought not to snow in winter. 

I received a most interesting letter from a friend 
of mine with the Burnside expedition, which revealed 
as large an amount of bad management as could 
well be conceived. Burnside, personally, has enough 
ingenuity, but is quite wanting in self-reliance, pres- 
ence of mind, and vigor. The expedition from 
which so much was expected did more than might 
have been thought possible at one time under the 
circumstances. 

A telegram from Toronto informed me that it was 
in contemplation to invite me to a public banquet, 
and desired me to state my wishes. Very much as 
I appreciated such an honor from my countrymen 
and fellow-subjects, it was inconsistent, as I con- 
ceived, with my position, as it certainly was with my 
sense of the merits attributed to me, to accept the 
very great compliment offered to me. It came all 
the more agreeably as it was in such contrast to the 
manner in which I had been received in the United 
States for the last few months ; and it touched me 
very sensibly, more than my friends at Toronto could 
have imagined. 

A n came in rather wroth about a matter of 

flags. He had been to see some Frenchmen, whether 
real or true Zouaves of the Crimea I know not, who 
gave out on tremendous posters that they were the 
identical children of the Beni Zoug Zoug, who had 
acted before us all in that theatre on the Woronzow 
Road once so charming and well filled ; and he had 
been seized with indignation because they, in that 
Canadian city, under the British flag, had dared to 
perform under the folds of the tricolor, and the Stars 
and Stripes of the United States. I explained that 
the British flag was metaphorically and properly 
supposed to float above both ; all which much com- 



ENGLISH AND AMERICANS. 67 

forted him, and so to bed — cold enough, in despite 
of stoves and open fire. The servants here are Irish 
men and women, with a sprinkling of free negroes. 

Next day the weather was not at all warmer. In 
winter time the cold is by no means unbearable in 
this Canadian clime, when one is well furred and 
clad ; to the poor it must be very trying, for furs and 
fuel are dear, and even clothing of an ordinary kind 
is not cheap. The emigrant, in his rude log-hut 
open in many chinks, must shrink and shiver and 
suffer in the blast. What do they, who follow, not 
owe to the hardy explorer who has opened up wood 
and mountain, and laid down paths on the sea for 
them? 

A thick haze had now settled down on all things, 
a cold freezing rime, which clung and crept to one, 
and almost sat down on the very hearth. Descend- 
ing the stairs, which were in a transition state and 
in the hands of carpenters, to the long salon-d- 
manger, I found the tables well filled by guards- 
men, riflemen, and members of the stafl[', military 
and civil, who gave the place the air of a mess-room 
under disorderly circumstances. 

I had before this seen many such rooms in Ameri- 
can hotels in cities filled with soldiery, and I am 
bound to say the difference between the two sets of 
men was remarkable. The noise, gayety, and life of 
these grave English were exuberant when compared 
to the silence of American gatherings of the same 
kind, which are, indeed, disturbed by the clatter of 
plates and dishes, and the horrible squeaking of 
chair-legs over the polished floors, but otherwise are 
quiet enough. Here, men laughed out, talked loud, 
shouted to the waiters, aired their lungs in occa- 
sional scoldings and objurgations, having reference 
to' chops and steaks and tardy-coming dishes; " old- 
fellowed " their friends ; asked or told the news. I 
don't know that the Englishmen were better look- 
ing, taller, or in any physical way had the advantage 



68 CANADA. 

of the men of the continent, except in ruddier cheeks 
perhaps, and in frames better provided with cellular 
tissue ; but the distinction of style and manner was 
marked. 

The Americans usually came into the salon singly, 
each man, with a bundle of newspapers under his 
arm, took a seat at a vacant table, ordered a prodig- 
ious repast, which he gobbled in haste, as though 
he was afraid of losing a train, and then rushed off 
to the bar or smoked in the passages, never sitting 
for a moment after his breakfast. The Englishmen 
came in little knots or groups, exhibited no great 
anxiety about newspapers, ordered simple and sub- 
stantial feasts, enjoyed them at their ease, chattered 
much, and were in no particular hurry to leave the 
table. The taciturnity of the American was not 
well-bred, nor was the good humor of the Briton 
vulgar. It may be said the comparison is not just, 
because the Americans were engaged in a fearful 
war, which engrossed all their thoughts ; whilst the 
English officer was merely sent out on a tour of 
duty. But in the bar-room, restaurants^ or streets, 
the American did not maintain the same aspect : he 
put on what is called a swaggering air, and was not 
at all disposed to let his shoulder-straps or his sword 
escape notice. 

The good people at home would have been greatly 
surprised to hear the way in which the officers spoke 
of their exile to the snows of Canada ; but though 
they growled and grumbled when breakfast was 
over, probably till dinner-time, they would have 
fought all the better for it. Indeed there was not 
much else to do. 

The streets were piled with snow ; and at the 
front of the hotel, sleighs, driven by Irishmen, such 
as are seen managing the Dublin hacks, wrapped up 
in fur and sheepskins, were drawn up waiting for 
fares, to the constant jingle of the bells, which en- 
livened the air. It was too early and too raw and 



SLEIGHING AND DRIVING. 69 

cold for many of the ladies of Montreal to trust 
their complexions to the cruelties of the climate, 
thickly veiled though they might be ; but now and 
then a sleigh slid by with a bright-eyed freight half- 
buried in fourrures, and some handsome private 
vehicles of this descriptioil reached in their way as 
high a point of richness and elegance as could well 
be conceived. The horses were rarely of correspond- 
ing quality. The guardsmen and other soldiers, 
"red" and "green," strode about in cold defiant 
boots, and seemed to like the town and climate 
better than their officers. Mr. Blackwell, the amia- 
ble and accomplished chief of the Grand Trunk 
Railway, called for me, and drove me out to an early 
dinner. 

It was a matter of some ceremony to set forth ; a 
fur cap with flaps secured over the ears and under 
the chin, a large fur cloak, and a pair of moccasons 
for the feet, had to be put on ; and then we clomb 
the sides of the boat-like sleigh, and started off at a 
rapid pace, which produced a sea-sick sensation — 
at least what I am told is like it — in very rough 
places where the runners of the sleighs have cut into 
the snow. On our. way we were rejoiced by the 
sight of the " Driving Club " going out for an ex- 
cursion. Sir Fenwick Williams leading. All one 
could see, however, was a certain looming up of dark 
forms through the drift gliding along to the music of 
the bells, which followed one after the other, and were 
lost in the hazy yet glittering clouds tossed up by the 
horses' hoofs from the snow. In the afternoon the 
rime passed off, and the day became clearer, but no 
warmer. 

At about three o'clock, we sleighed over by rough 
roads to the terminus of the railway, close to the 
Victoria Bridge, where a party of the directors and 
some officers — Colonel Mackensie, Colonel Weth- 
erall, Colonels Ellison and Earle of the Guards, and 
others recently arrived — were assembled to view 

4* 



70 CANADA. 

the great work which would stamp the impress of 
English greatness on Canada, if her power were to 
be rooted out to-morrow. The royal carriage — a 
prettily decorated long open wagon, with the Prince 
of Waies's coat of arms, plume, and initials still 
shining brightly — was in readiness; and as cold 
makes one active, or very lazy, as the case may be, 
we lost no time in starting to explore the bridge, 
which threw its massive weight in easy stretches 
across the vast frozen highway of the St. Lawrence — 
so light, so strong, so graceful, for all its rigid lines, 
that I can compare the impression of the thing to 
nothing so much as to that of the bounds of a tiger. 

The entrance, in the limestone rock, is grandly 
simple ; but ere we could well admire its propor- 
tions the car ran into the darkness of the great tube. 
The light admitted by the neatly designed windows 
in the iron sides of the aerial tunnel was not enough 
to enable us to pierce through the smoke and the fog 
Avhich clung to the interior. The car proceeded to 
the end, the thermometer marking 6.^ Statistics, 
though I have them all by me, I am not about to 
give, as the history of the bridge is well known ; but 
Mr. Blackwell showed me a table which indicated 
that the monster suffers or rejoices like a living thing, 
and contracts and expands and swells out his lines 
wondrously, just in proportion as the temperature 
alters. 

From this end of the magnificent bridge one could 
see, nearly a hundred feet below him, the rugged sur- 
face of the ice, beneath which was rolling the St. 
Lawrence. It was distinguished from the snowy 
expanse covering the land by the bluish glint of the 
ice, and by the torn glacier-like aspect of the course 
of the stream, where the frozen masses had been con- 
tending fiercely with the current and with each other 
till the frost-king had clutched them and bound them 
in the midst of the conflict. You could trace the 
likeness of spires, pinnacles, castles, battlements, and 



BRIDGE ACROSS THE ST. LAWRENCE. 71 

alpine peaks in the wild confusion of those serried 
heaps, which were tilted up and forced together ; but 
the haze did not permit us to follow the course of the 
stream for any great distance. It was too cold for 
enthusiastic enjoyment, and we got into the car and 
backed into the darkness till we reached the centre 
of the bridge. 

I confess, when it occurred to me that great cold 
makes iron brittle, the uneasy feeling I experienced 
of suspense, malgre moi, in passing over any of 
these great engineering triumphs, was aggravated so 
far that it required a good deal of faith in the charm- 
ing diagram of the effects of temperature on the 
bridge, to make me quite at ease. I suppose it is 
only an engineer who can be quite above the thought, 
"-♦Suppose, after all, the bridge does go at this par- 
ticular moment." And then the iron did crackle and 
bang and shriek most unmistakably and demonstra- 
tiv^y. 

At the centre of the bridge we got out, and had 
another look at the river, some sixty feet below. Re- 
marked the thinness of the iron ; was informed it was 
on purpose, every plate being made specially for its 
place. Examined carefully a bolt driven in by the 
Prince of Wales ; rather liked its appearance, as it 
was well hammered and seemed sound. Then the 
car received us, and we were drawn through this 
ghastly cold gallery once more, and were divulged 
at the railway station among a crowd of furred citi- 
zens. 

Thence through the city over the rough road in 
our carrioles and sleighs. On our way I remarked 
a stone obelisk standing out of the snow close to the 
railway, in a low patch of ground near the river. 
" That," said my companion, " is a memorial to six 
thousand Irish emigrants who died here of ship- 
fever." What a history in those few words — a tale 
of sorrow and woe unutterable — I hope, not of neg- 
lect and indifference too! The railway engineers 



72 CANADA. 

ha\ e thoughtfully erected the monument of the name- 
less dead J and so far rescued their fate from oblivion. 

I am not so philosophic as to witness the desolat- 
ing emigrations which leave the homes of a country- 
waste, and fill the lands of future kingdoms and pos- 
sible rivals with an alienated population, without 
regret. Above all, I pity the fate of the poor pio- 
neers whose hapless lot it is to labor unthanked and 
despised, to build up the stranger's cities, to clear 
his forests, and make his roads, to found his power 
and greatness, and then to sit at his gate waiting for 
alms when the hour cometh that no man can work. 

It is most strange, indeed, and yet too true, that 
a race which, above all others, ought to seek the 
material advantages and the substantial results of 
hard work, should be the most readily led astray hw 
windy agitators and by political disputes and pas- 
sions. Here we are driving through the streets of 
Montreal, which owes much of its existence to Irish 
labor, and the laborer lives in filth and degradation, 
in the back slums of the city, intensely interested 
in elections and clerical discussions, little better 
cared for or regarded than the dogs thereof till his 
vote is required. 

The city is now in its winter mantle, but it shows 
fair proportions. The Roman Catholic chapels are 
well placed and handsome, and excel in size and 
numbers the Protestant churches. The Quarter- 
master-General, who has had to hire one of the 
Catholic colleges to serve as barracks for the troops, 
says the priests are remarkably keen practitioners at 
a bargain : good Churchmen always were in old 
times. The metal-covered domes and spires, the 
roofs of houses sheeted with tin, now began to glis- 
ten in the sun, and gave a bright look to the place 
which did not make it all the warmer. 

Montreal is a much finer-looking place than I had 
expected. The iiTCgularity of the streets pleased the 
eye, wearied by straight lines and regular frontage 



THE RINK. 73 

The houses of stone with double windows have plain 
bare fronts, and do not present so good an appear- 
ance as the best of New York ; but the character of 
the residences as a whole is better, and the effect of 
the city, to compare small things with great, very 
much more interesting and picturesque. 

Our destination in this drive was the Rink, or 
covered skating-ground, which is the fashionable 
sporting resort of Montrealese in the winter time. 
The crowd of sleighs and sleigh-drivers around the 
doors of a building which looked like a Methodist 
chapel, announced that the skaters were already as- 
sembled. 

Anything but a Methodist-looking place inside. 
The room, which was like a large public bath-room, 
was crowded with women, young and old, skating 
or preparing to skate, for husbands, and spread in 
maiden rays over the glistening area of ice, gliding, 
swooping, revolving on legs of every description, 
which were generally revealed to mortal gaze in pro- 
portion to their goodness, and therefore were dis- 
played on a principle so far unobjectionable. The 
room was lighted with gas, which, with the heat 
of the crowd, made the ice rather sloppy ; but the 
skating of the natives was admirable, and some 
hardened campaigners of foreign origin had by long 
practice learned to emulate the graces and skill of 
the inhabitants. 

It was a mighty pretty sight. The spectators sat 
or stood on the raised ledge round the ice parallelo- 
gram like swallows ,on a clitf, and now and then 
dashed off and swept away as if on the wing over 
the surface, in couples or alone, executing quadrilles, 
mazurkas, waltzes, and tours de force, that made one 
conceive the laws of gravitation must be suspended 
in the Rink, and that the ouside edge is the most 
stable place for the human foot and figure. Mercy, 
what a crash ! There is a fine stout young lady 
sprawling on the ice, tripped up by Dontstop of the 



74 CANADA. 

Guards, who is making a first attempt, to the detri- 
ment of the lieges. How delighted the ladies are, 
and pretend not to be ; for the fallen fair one is the 
best contortionist in the place! she is on her legs 
again — has shaken the powdered ice and splash 
off her dandy jacket and neat little breeches, — yes, 
they wear breeches, a good many of them, — and is 
zigzagging about once more like a pretty noiseless 
firework. 

The little children skate, so do most portentous 
mammas. A line of recently arrived officers, in fur 
caps and coats, look on, all sucking their canes, and 
resolving to take private lessons early in the morning. 
Some, in the goose-step stage, perform awful first 
lines with their skates, and leave me in doubt as to 
whether they will split up or dash out their brains. 
The young ladies pretend to avoid them with una- 
nimity, but sail round them still as seagulls sweep by 
a drowning man. And if a fellow should fall — and 
be saved by a lady? Well ! It may end in an in- 
troduction, and a condition of '• muffinage." And 
what that is we must tell you hereafter. I can't an- 
sw^er your question as to whether the women were 
pretty ; eyes dark generally, and good complexions. 
The Rink is a bad place to judge of that point. 

I paid my respects to Sir Fenwick Williams, who 
has his quarters in the hoteL The general has plenty 
of work to do at present, and did not seem quite so 
well as when I saw him after his return from Kars. 
There is a general impression that the Federals will 
keep their armies in good humor at the end of the 
war, by annexing Canada, if they can. No one asks 
what they will do with them when that work has 
been accomplished. Dined at the house of the Hon. 
John Rose, member for Montreal, and formerly a 
member of the Government. He had, after his hos- 
pitable wont, some young officers to dine also ; and, 
after an agreeable evening, I slid home in a bitter 
snow-drift to the hotel, and so to bed. Here is a 
page from my diary. 



INFLUENCE OF THE NORTHERNERS. 75 

February 6. — The severe cold makes the head 
ache, and stupefies me ultra modum, I wrote to Mr. 
Hope, stating my reasons for declining the great com- 
pliment of a public dinner intended for me at To- 
ronto. As I move about here, I feel that society is 
much under the influence of the unruly fellow, our 
next neighbor. There is no great love for him ; but 
his prodigious kicks and blows, his threats, his bad 
language, his size and insolence, frighten them up 
here. There is great anxiety for the American news ; 
and I am bound to say, the Northern Americans 
must have done something to make the Canadians 
dislike them, as there is little love for them even 
where little is felt for England. I saw a great many 
of the principal personages to-day. Called on the 
Bishop, whose sweet, benevolent face is an index of 
his mind. He spoke in high terms of his Roman 
Catholic coadjutor; indeed, it would be difficult to 
quarrel with Dr. Mountain. In education, they work 
haraioniously together. Mr. D'Arcy M'Ghie called 
on me. He is now a member of the Canadian Par- 
liament, and is giving his support to the authority of 
the British Crown. His loyalty is, of course, stig- 
matized by some as treason to what they call the 
cause of Ireland ; but I believe the atmosphere of 
Canada is found to have a vapor-dispelling, febrifuge 
character about it which works well on the mind of 
the Irish immigrant. A most entertaining, witty, 
well-informed barrister, also an Irishman, paid me a 
visit, and gave some admirable sketches of Canadian 
society, of the bar, of the working of parties, as well 
as his own ideas on all points, in a peculiarly terse 
and pleasant way. 



76 CANADA. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Visit the " Lions " of Montreal. — The 47th Regiment. — The City open to 
Attack. — Quays, Public Buildings. — French Colonization. — Rise of 
Montreal. — Stone. — A French-Anglicized Cit\'. — Loyalty of Canadi- 
ans. — Arrival of Troops. — Facings. — British and American Arm}' com- 
pared. — Experience needed by Latter. — Slavery. 

I REMAINED Several days at Montreal, examining 
the lions, and making the most of my brief stay. 
Here are living a knot of Southern families in a sort 
of American Siberia, at a very comfortable hotel, 
who nurse their wrath against the Yankee to keep it 
warm and sustain each other's spirits. They form a 
nucleus for sympathizing society to cluster around, 
and so germinate into innocent little balls, sleigh- 
parties, and occasional matrimonial engagements. 

" Waiting for his regiment," too, was old General 
Bell, — the veteran who saw his first shot fired in the 
Peninsula, and his last, forty-four years afterwards, 
before Sebastopol. There were parades of the 47th 
Regiment and inspection-drills on the St. Lawrence 
in snow-shoes ; and Penn marched out his Arm- 
strongs in beautiful order, on their sleighs, for all to 
see. 

The position of this fine city leaves it open to at- 
tack from the American frontier, which is so near 
that the blue tops of the mountain ridges of the 
bordering States can be seen on a clean day. The 
rail from the centre of New York runs direct to 
it, through the arsenal and fort of Rouse's Point on 
Lake Champlain ; and there are two other lines con- 
verging on it, so that an enormous force could be 
swiftly sent against it. The frontier is here a mere 
line on the map, so drawn as to leave the head of 
Lake Champlain and Rouse's Point in the hands of 
the Americans. Its importance, its beauty, and the 



MONTREAL. 77 

feeling of the inhabitants would render it temptin:^ 
to the Northern armies ; and the fierce, relentless, and 
destructive spirit which has been evoked in their 
civil war, might lead them to destroy all that is 
valuable and handsome in a city which stands in 
strong contrast to the hideousness of American towns, 
if they were, as of old, obliged to abandon the city. 

The quays of Montreal are of imperial beauty, and 
would reflect credit on any city in Europe. They 
present a continuous line of cut-stone from the La- 
chine Canal along the river-front before the city, 
leaving a fine broad- mall or esplanade between the 
water's edge and the houses. The public buildings, 
built of solid stone, in which a handsome limestone 
predominates, are of very great merit. Churches, 
court-houses, banks, markets, hospitals, colleges, all 
are worthy of a capital ; and these would present a 
very different appearance to an invader from that 
which was offered by the poverty-stricken and insig- 
nificant Montreal of 1812. 

There are a few guns mounted on a work on the 
left bank of the river above the city, but for military 
purposes the place may be considered perfectly open. 
There are more than 90,000 people in the city, but it 
is said not to be a fighting population ; and there are 
many foreigners and emigrants of an inferior class, 
who taint the place with rowdyism. The British 
element was active in volunteering when I was there, 
and figures in uniform were frequently to be seen in 
the streets; but the time was unfavorable for any 
public displays, and 1 never saw any of the volunteers 
working en masse. 

Here, as elsewhere, the jealousies of claimants for 
command, local and personal rivalry, have impeded 
the good work ; but such obstacles would vanish in 
the presence of danger. National feeling has tended 
to make the organization of corps too expensive, and 
the question of drafting for the militia has also inter- 
fered with the full development of the movement. 



78 CANADA. 

It would be unjustifiable to assert that the enter- 
prise of the French people, and their capacity for 
colonization, have been diminished by republican in- 
stitutions ; but, unquestionably, the gi*eat convulsions 
which have agitated society since the fall of the mon- 
archy appear to have concentrated the energies of the 
race upon objects nearer home, even though they 
have annexed Algeria, established a protectorate over 
Tahiti, and are engaged in war with the Cambodians. 
Where is the enterprise which, more than 200 years 
ago, originated a company of merchant adventurers, 
who pushed out settlements into this wilderness, and 
founded factories among the Iroquois and the Mo- 
hawks ? In those days, indeed, the zeal of Jesuits 
and other Roman Catholic missionaries preceded the 
march and directed the course of commerce. 

Montreal owes its existence to a certain Monsieur 
Maisonneuve, the factor of the Commercial Associa- 
tion in 1642. More than 100 years afterwards it was 
nearly destroyed by fire ; and ten years after the con- 
flagration the ti'oops of the insurgent colonies took 
possession of the town, which was a favorite object 
of attack in the two American wars. 

In spite of many misfortunes — fire, hostile occu- 
pation, insurrection, riot — Montreal has flourished 
exceedingly, and the energy of its population has 
been displayed in securing for it a principal share of 
the trade between England and the Upper Provinces. 
Its railway communications have been pushed with 
great energy, and the canals and quays are in im- 
perial grandeur ; but still, in case of war with the 
States, the onl}^ outlet in winter (by rail to Portland) 
would be effectually blocked up. 

The city contains nearly 100,000 inhabitants, of 
whom 60,000 are Roman Catholics — representing a 
great variety of nationalities, with a predominance, 
however, of French Canadians and Irish. An abun- 
dance of fine stone, found near the town, has enabled 
the inhabitants to build substantial houses in lieu of 



PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 79 

the wooden edifices from which they were driven by 
two great conflagrations ; but the material is of a 
dull cold gray color, and the streets, seen in winter- 
time, have in consequence a gloomy and melancholy 
aspect. Many of the cupolas and spires and the 
roofs of many of the houses are covered with metal 
plates, which shine out in the sun, and give the city 
a bright appearance from a distance, which is not 
altogether maintained on a nearer approach. 

The mental activity of the population, displayed in 
a large crop of newspapers, doubtless indicates a 
close intimacy with the United States ; but Montreal 
is, after all, French Anglicized, and, notwithstanding 
the disaffection of which it gave symptoms in the 
rebellion, the sympathies of its people are very far re- 
moved from the bald republicanism of the New Eng- 
land States. 

Nuns and priests seem, to a Protestant eye, to be 
rather too numerous for the good of the people ; but 
having seen the schools of the Christian Brothers, 
and having heard the testimony of all classes to the 
services rendered to morals and religion, to charity 
and to Christianity, by the various religious orders, I 
am forced to believe that Montreal is much indebted 
to their labors. 

The number of hospitals, schools, scientific institu- 
tions — the libraries, reading-rooms, universities, are 
remarkable. They are worthy of a highly civilized, 
wealthy, and prosperous community ; but, in fact, the 
economy with which they are managed is not one of 
the least remarkable features about the Montreal in- 
stitutions. Party animosities have now been soft- 
ened ; but there is no doubt of the satisfaction with 
which the Liberal Canadian points to the fact that 
those who were imprisoned and persecuted by the 
Government, for rebellious acts or tendencies, have 
since been called to office, and have served the Crown 
in high official positions. 

The people of Canada are learning a useful piece 



80 CANADA. 

of knowledge or two from what is passing so close to 
them. The annexation party are heard no more : in 
their room stand the people of Canada, loyal to the 
Crown and to the connection, prepared to defend 
their homes and altars against invasion. So far as 
I have gone, in no place in the Queen's dominions 
is there greater attachment to her person and au- 
thority. 

The Canadians see with sorrow the ills which 
afflict their neighbors, in spite of all the ill-advised 
menaces of the Northern Press ; but they felt natur- 
ally indignant at being spoken of as if they were a 
mere chattel, which could be taken away by the 
United States from Great Britain in order to spite 
her. With such turbulent and dangerous elements 
at work close to them, they will no doubt eagerly 
assist the authorities in their efforts to secure their 
borders and their country, by putting the militia on 
a proper footing. The patriotism of the Legislature 
can be relied on to do this. England will do the 
rest, and give her best blood, if need be, to aid this 
magnificent dependency of the same Crown as that 
to which she is herself subject, in maintaining the 
present situation. 

It was most agreeable to hear praise instead of 
grumbling, and to know that amid no ordinary diffi- 
culties the troops were landed and conveyed across 
the snows of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in 
the month of January without casualty or mishap 
worth mentioning, and that the arrangements were 
worthy of every commendation. It made us feel 
proud of our army when we saw the cheerfulness, 
soldierly look, cleanliness, and deportment of the 
men, and learnt that they had conducted themselves 
in the most exemplary manner, though exposed to 
great temptation by the hospitality of the New- 
Brunswickers and the cheapness of intoxicating 
liquors. 

And what wonderful vicissitudes of service those 



OLD CPwIMEAN FRIENDS. 81 

officers and men have seen ! Here is a face yet 
burned by the suns of India, encircled in fur cap, and 
peering into the railway carriage to welcome some 
well-known friend from China or Aldershot. There 
marches a sturdy Guardsman, one of the few who 
remain of the men of Alma and Inkerman, with that 
small ladder of glory on his breast. Here is one of 
the old Riflemen, — alas, most gracious Queen I they 
feel proud in sadness of their name now, — one of 
"the Prince Consort's Own Rifle Brigade," who 
heard, that bright evening when our good ship was 
gliding through the blue waters of the Dardanelles, 
the rich chorus of those manly voices, most of which 
are silenced forever, — 

" Soldiers, merrily march away ! 
Soldiers glory lives in story, 
His laurels are green when his locks are gray, 
Then hurrah for the life of a soldier ! " 

Firm and clean and straight as of yore, under all his 
load of great-coat, furs, and boots, struts, the soldier 
of the 47th, mindful of De Lacy Evans, " little Inker- 
man," and of the greater in which it was eclipsed. 
Will he be as trim and neat, I wonder, if they take 
away his white facings ? Of the old " fours " — the 
second brigade of the division which with the light 
divided the "general" fighting — the 41st and 47th, 
though perhaps no better, always looked better than 
the 49th, because of their facings. 

The influence of facings, indeed, goes much fur- 
ther than that in general society. The hotel in which 
I live (a very attentive host is doing his best to com- 
plete the resemblance by extensive dilapidations) is 
as like a barracks as can be. The " St. Lawrence 
Hall " is in a military occupation. The obstacles in 
way of " alterations " are bestridden by Guardsmen, 
Riflemen, and Engineers, on their way to breakfast 
and dinner, as if they were getting through breaches. 
In the hall abundance of soldiers, anxious orderlies 
with the quaint quartos full of orders, and military 



82 CANADA. 

idlers smoking as much as you like, but, I am glad 
to say, not chewing — nor, as a New York paper 
calls the Republican Senators, "tobacco-expectorant." 
To appreciate this boon properly, pray be prepared 
to limit the suffrage immensely. In the passages 
more orderlies and soldier-servants, who now and 
then do a little of what is called flirting with the 
passing demoiselles de service; tubs outside in the 
passage ; doors of rooms open a la caserne ; military 
chests and charts on the table. 

It would have given those who admit that war is 
necessary sometimes, as the sole means of redressing 
national grievances, considerable satisfaction to have 
seen the difference presented by the regular troops of 
Great Britain in Canada and the vast masses of vol- 
unteers assembled on the Potomac by the United 
States. It is not that the British are one whit finer 
men : taking even the Guards, there are some few 
regiments there which in height and every constit- 
uent of physique, except gross weight, cannot be 
excelled. 

As a whole, perhaps, the average of intelligence, 
taken there to mean reading and writing, may be 
higher among the United States volunteers than 
among the British regulars; — not much, however. 
The Sanitary Commission of New York, a very 
patriotic and thoroughly American body, did not 
attempt to claim more than three fifths of the United 
States armies as of American birtli. The immediate 
descendants of Irish and German parents are thus 
included among native-born Aniericans, though they 
are in all respects except birth Irish and Germans 
still. Very probably they have not partaken to the 
full, or to any great extent, of the advantages of pub- 
lic education. 

But, taking the statement of the Commissioners, 
— which, by the bye, is a very serious reflection on 
the patriotism of the Northern populations, — it may 
be doubted whether in reading, writing, and arithme- 



ARMY EDUCATION AND DISCIPLINE. 83 

tic there is any great superiority on the part of the 
United States troops over the British. I admit that 
in some regiments of the New England States there 
is a higher average of such knowledge as may en- 
able a man to argue on the orders of his officers, 
and of such intelligence as may induce him to be- 
lieve he is competent to criticize the conduct of a 
campaign. 

There is an immense amount of newspaper read- 
ing and letter- writing, the former taste predominat- 
ing ; but our own mail-bags are ample enough to 
satisfy any one that the same preponderance which 
is maintained by London over New York in corre- 
spondence is to be found in the English army over 
the American. Many Irish and Germans here have 
no inducements to write letters, but there are few 
who are unable to read their newspapers. 

What is it, then, one may reasonably ask, which 
would satisfy the grumbler, who finds fault with the 
expenditure of standing armies, that he has got value 
for his money when he contrasts the British troops 
here with the battalions on the Potomac? It is the 
efficiency produced by obedience, which is the very 
life of discipline : the latter is obedience incorporated, 
and, in motion or at rest, acting by fixed rules, with 
something approaching to certainty in its results. 

The small army in Canada could be massed to- 
gether, with its artillery and transport, in a very short 
time, and directed with precision to any one point, 
though it is a series of detachments on gamson duty 
rather than a corps cVarmce^ and it has neither cav- 
alry nor baggage animals. With all the liberal (if 
not occasionally extravagant) outlay, and the cost 
of transporting it, the force in a few weeks would be 
far less expensive than an American corps of the 
same strength ; and it is no disparagement to the 
latter to say they would be less efficient than the 
British. I do not speak of actual fighting ; for our 
battle-fields in Canada tell how desperate may be the 



84 CANADA. 

encounters between the armies. Our force would 
be under the orders of experienced officers. The 
staff would consist of men who have seen service in 
the E-ussian war, in Asia, in India, and in China, 
and who have witnessed the operations of great 
European armies. The United States is laboriously 
seeking to acquire experience, at a cost which may 
be ruinous to its national finances, and a delay which 
may be fatal to its cause ; but it cannot galvanize 
the inert mass with the fire of military efficiency, 
though it burns, we are told, with hidden volcanic 
energies, and is pregnant with pati'iotic life. The 
use of an army in war is to fight, to be able to move 
to and after its enemy, to beat and to pursue him. 

It is not greatly to be wondered at if the work, 
which Great Britain has only partially accomplished, 
notwithstanding the greatness of its progress, should 
be only begun in the United States. The aptitude 
of a large mass of the inhabitants for arms, whether 
they be foreign or native-born, is marred by many 
things. There is the principle of equality intruding 
itself in military duty, confounding civil rights with 
the relations between superior and inferior — be- 
tween officer and rank-and-file. There is the diffi- 
culty of getting men to follow officers who have no 
special fitness for their post. A soldier rnay be made 
in a year ; a company officer cannot be made in 
three years. There are many officers in the Ameri- 
can army of great theoretical and some practical 
knowledge ; there are many in the British army lazy 
and indifferent ; — but no one would think for a mo- 
ment of comparing the acquirements, in a military 
sense, of the officers of the two nations. 

In the Crimean war, when our army was enlarged 
at a time that severe losses had much diminished the 
number of officers, we saw that our standard was 
considerably lowered by the precipitate infusion of 
new men. No wonder, then, that the United States 
had and has great difficulty in procuring officers of 



traininjG of officers. 85 

the least value for a levy of more than half a million 
of volunteers. 

But the system itself is a most formidable barrier 
to success. Under no circumstances can it reach a 
moderate degree of efficiency, unless the test of sub- 
sequent examination be rigidly enforced. There is 
no superiority of rank, of military knowledge, of per- 
sonal character, of social position, to create an emu- 
lation in the mind of the private to be the obedient 
but daring equal of the officer in the time of danger. 
To such general remarks there are many and brilliant 
exceptions. 

In the course of time, the personal qualities and 
the reputation for bravery and skill of officers would 
stand in the Republican armies in lieu of those influ- 
ences which move the British soldier. No one is 
foolish enough to think or say that the private fol- 
lows his officer because the latter has paid so much 
money for his commission or has so much a year. 
The gradual rise from one rank to another is a guar- 
antee of some military knowledge — at all events, 
of acquaintance with drill. Social position counts 
for much. Men who are equal before the law are 
very unequal in the drill-book. 

It would be lamentable to see so much faith in a 
cause, such devotion, zeal, boundless expenditure, 
and splendid material comparatively lost, — to behold 
the petted Republic wasting away under this influ- 
ence, and the vis inertice of the force it has called into 
being, — were it not that the spectacle is a lesson for 
the nations. It has not yet come to its end. 

If standing armies there must be, let them be as 
complete in organization as possible. If an empire 
must rely on volunteers as its main defence-, let care 
be taken that they are organized and officered so as 
to be effective, and regulated on such principles of 
economy that they may not overwhelm with debt 
the country they are engaged in protecting by their 
arms. 



86 CANADA. 

It is quite true that the Confederates suffer from 
the same disadvantages as those which affect the 
Federals, but in a far less degree. Mr. Davis, early 
in the war, got hold of the army and subjected it to 
discipline. It was not so difficult to do so in the 
South as in the North, owing to the difference in the 
people. The officers were appointed by him. The 
men were animated, as they are now, by an intense 
hatred of their enemy. Their armies were in a de- 
fensive attitude ; a large number, comprising some 
of the best, of the United States officers sided with 
them. They are operating besides on the inner 
lines. 

But, after all, if the possession of the seaboard, the 
use of navies, the vast preponderance of population, 
the ability to get artillery and arms, and the occupa- 
tion of the heads of the great river communications 
be not utterly thrown away, the North must overrun 
the South, if only the Northerners can fight as well 
as the Southerners, and if the North can raise money 
to maintain the struggle. 

Let us leave out of view the slave element for 
once. The Abolitionists assert that the most formi- 
dable weapon in the United States armory is the use 
of the emancipated slave ; but it is rather difficult to 
see how the slaves could assist the North as long as 
they remain obedient and quiet in the South, or how 
the North can get at them by a mere verbal declara- 
tion till it has conquered the Slave States. Above 
all, it is not clear that it would benefit the penniless 
exchequer of the North to have 4,000,000 black pau- 
pers suddenly thrown on it for support. 

Slavery is to me truly detestable ; the more I saw 
of it the less I liked it. It is painful, to one who has 
seen the system at work and its results, to read in 
English journals philosophical — pseudo-philosophic 
cal treatises on the subject, and dissertations on the 
" ethics and aesthetics " of the curse, from which w ^ 



SLAVERY. 87 

shook ourselves free years ago with the approbation 
of our own consciences and of the world. 

Before I speak of the defence of Montreal in con- 
nection with the general military position of the 
Canadian frontier, I shall continue my brief narrative 
of my tour through Canada. 



88- CANADA. 



CHAPTER VII. 

first View of Quebec. — Passage of the St. Lawrence. — Novel and rather 
alarming Situation. — Hussell's Hotel. — The Falls of Montmorenci, and 
the '-Cone." — Aspect of the Citj-. — The Point. — " Tarboggining." 
Description of the " Cone." — Audacity of one of my Companions. — 
A Canadian Dinner. — Call on the Governor. — Visit the Citadel. — 
Its Position. — Capabilities for Defence. — View from Parapet. — The 
Armory. — Old Muskets. — Red-tape Thoughtfulness. — French and 
English Occupation of Quebec. — Strength of Quebec. 

It was early in the morning when the train from 
Montreal arrived at Point Levi on the right bank of 
the St. Lawrence, a little above Quebec. The im- 
pression produced on us by the Heights of Abraham, 
by the frowning citadel, by the picturesque old city 
glistening in the sun's rays, and by the great river 
battling its way through the fields of ice and the 
countless miniature bergs, which it hustled upwards 
with full-tide power, can never be effaced. 

It required some faith to, enable one to believe the 
passage could be made by mortal boat of that vast 
flood from which the crash of ice sounded endlessly, 
as floes and bergs floating full speed were dashed 
against each other — flying fast as clouds in a wintiy 
sky up the river, the banks of which resembled the 
sheen sides of an Alpine crevasse. The force of the 
stream is so great as to rend through and rupture the 
coat of ice which is thickened daily, and the masses 
thus broken, tossed into all sorts of singular shapes, 
jagged and quaint, are borne up and down by the 
flood till they are melted by the increasing warmth 
of spring. An ice bridge is occasionally formed by 
the concentration of the ice in such masses as to 
resist the action of the water, and then sleigh-horses 
cross by a path which is marked out by poles or 
twigs stuck in the snow, but it more usually happens 



THE ST. LAWRENCE. 89 

that the river opposite Quebec remains unfrozen, and 
offers the singular spectacle of the ice rushing up and 
down every day as the tide rises and falls, to the 
great interest and-excitement of strangers who have 
to cross from one side to the other. 

At first the attempt seems impracticable. The 
deep blue of the St. Lawrence can be only seen here 
and there through the bergs and floes, like the veins 
beneath a snowy skin, but those glints are forever 
varying as the ice passes on. The clear spaces are 
no sooner caught by the eye than they are filled up 
again, and every instant there are fresh refts made in 
the shifting surface, which is at once as solid as a 
glacier and as yielding as water. In this race the 
bergs are carried with astonishing force and rapidity, 
and a grating noise ; and a grinding, crashing sound 
continually rises from the water. 

At the station there was a goodly crowd of men 
in ragged fur coats and caps, pea-jackets, and long 
boots, of an amphibious sort, who did not quite look 
like sailors, and who yet were not landsmen. These 
were clamoring for passengers, and touting with 
energy in a mixture of French and English. " Prenez 
notr' bateau, M'sieu' — La Belle Alliance ! Good 
boat, Sar ! Jean Baptiste, M'sieu' : I well known 
boatman. Sir." " The blue boat. Sir, gentleman's 
boat, Mon Espoir," " L'Hirondelle," and so on at the 
top of their voices. And sure enough there, drawn 
up on the snow near the station, was a range of 
stout whale-boats, double planked on the sides, and 
provided with remarkably broad keels. 

We selected, after a critical inspection, the captain 
of one of these — a merry-eyed, swarthy fellow, with 
a big beard and brawny shoulders — as our Charon, 
and following his directions we were stowed away in 
a sort of well between the steersman and the stroke- 
oar, where we sat down with our legs stretched out 
very comfortably, and were then covered up to the 
chin with old skins, /urs, and great-coats. When all 



90 CANADA. 

was ready, a horse was brought forward with a sling 
bar, to which a rope was attached from the bow. and 
we glided forward along the road towards the most 
favorable point for crossing at that stage of the tide. 
The boat was steadied and guided by the crew, who 
ran alongside with their hands on the gunwales. 
Houses by the road-side snowed up — shop- windows 
with French names — sallow-faced, lean people look- 
ing out of the grimy windows — some large ships on 
the «tocksj roughly placed on the river-bank — these 
met the eye as we passed over the snow road towards 
the point opposite the city now looming nearer. 
With cheap timber and labor it is not surprising that 
the ship-building trade of Quebec flourishes. 

For more than a mile and a half the boat careered 
eastwards, in active emulation with several other 
boats which were in our track, and the citadel on the 
opposite shore already lay behind us, before the horse 
was detached at the side of a deep incline leading to 
the river, and in another moment the boat was glid- 
ing down the bank and rushing for a blue rent in the 
midst of the heavy surface, into which we splashed 
as unerringly as a wild duck drops into a moss-hole. 
The moment the bow touched the water, all the crew, 
some seven or eight in number, leaped in and seized 
their oars, which they worked with a will, whilst the 
skipper, standing in the bow, directed the course of 
the steersman. 

We were now in a basin of clear water surrounded 
quite by ice, which only left the tops of the small 
bergs and the high banks on each side visible to us 
seated low down in the boat ; and as we looked the 
floes were rapidly closing in upon us ; but the skip- 
per saw where the frozen wall was about opening, 
and forced the boat to the point of the advancing arid 
narrowing circle, in which suddenly a tiny canal was 
cleft by the parting of the bergs, and the opportunity 
was instantly seized by the boatmen. 

The ice was already closing and gripping the tim- 



BOAT ADVENTURE. 91 

bers as soon as we had fairly entered, and in an in- 
stant out leaped the crew on the ti-eacherons surface, 
which here and there sank till they were knee-deep, 
and by main force they slid the boat up on a floe, and 
rockinsf her from side to side as a kite flutters before 
it makes a swoop, they roused her along on the sur- 
face of the ice, which was floating up towards the 
city very rapidly. With loud cries to a sort of chorus, 
the crew forced the craft across the floe till they 
floundered in some half-frozen snow, through which 
the boat dropped into the water. Then in they 
leaped, like so many Newfoundland dogs coming to 
land, all wet and furry, took the oars again, and 
rowed across and against the tide-set as hard as they 
could. Now in the w^ater, then hanging on by the 
gunwales, this moment rowing, in another tugging 
at the boat-ropes, clambering over small ice-rocks, 
running across floes, sinking suddenly to the waist 
in the cold torrent, the men battled with the current, 
and by degrees the shore grew nearer, and the pic- 
turesque outlines of the city became more distinct in 
the morning sun. 

What with the extraordinary combinations and 
forms of the ice drifts, the inimitably fantastic out- 
lines of the miniature ice architecture, and the novelty 
of the scene, one's attention was entirely fixed on 
what was passing around, and it was not till we had 
nearly touched land that we had time to admire the 
fine eff"ect of the streets and citadel, which, rising from 
the icy wall of the river-bank, towered aloft over us 
like the old town of Edinburgh suddenly transplanted 
to the sea. 

We found an opening in the blue cold water-rocks 
near the Custom-house landing-wharf, at which place 
there was a shelving bank; a stout horse was at- 
ta^ihed to the boat by a rope, on which the crew threw 
themselves with enthusiasm ; and in a few seconds 
more we were on the quay, and thence proceeded to 
Russell's Hotel, which was recommended to us as 



92 CANADA. 

the best in the place. One may find fault with 
American hostelries ; but assuredly they are better 
than the imitations of them which one finds in Can- 
ada, combining all the bad qualities of hotels in the 
States and in Europe, and destitute of any of the 
good ones. 

The master of the hotel was an American, and he 
had struggled hard "under the depressing influences 
of the British aristocracy " to establish an American 
hotel, and he only succeeded in introducing the least 
agreeable features of the institution ; but the attend- 
ants were civil and obliging, and there was no ex- 
travagant pressure on the resources of the place, so 
that we fared better than if we had been down south 
of the frontier. Even the landlord, though not par- 
ticularly well disposed towards one so unpopular 
among his countrymen as myself, yielded so far to 
the genius loci as to be civil. The rooms were small, 
and not particularly clean ; but as painting and 
papering were going on, those who follow me may 
be better provided for. 

A short rest was very welcome ; but what fate is 
like that which drives the sight-seer ever onwards, 
and forces him, with the rage of all the furies, from 
repose ? " The Falls of Montmorenci were but a 
drive away, and the * Cone ' was in great perfec- 
tion." 

" What is ' the Cone ? ' " The effect of our igno- 
rance on the waiter was so touching — he was so 
astonished by the profound barbarism of our con- 
dition — that we felt it necessary for our own char- 
acter to proceed at once to a spot which forms the 
delight of Quebec in the winter season, and to which 
the bourgeoisie were repairing in hot haste for the 
afternoon's pleasure. 

A sleigh was brought round, and in it, ensconced 
in furs, we started off for the Falls, which are about 
eight miles distant. It was delightful to see any- 
thing so old on this continent as the tortuous streets 



QUEBEC. 93 

of the city, which bear marks of their French origin, 
after such a long contact as I had endured with 
the raw youth of American cities in general, but it 
was impossible to deny that the antiquity before us 
had a certain air of dreary staleness about it also. 
The double-windowed flat-faced houses had a lanky, 
compressed air, as if they had been starved in early 
life, and the citizens had the appearance of people 
who had no particular object in being there, and 
set no remarkable value on time. A considerable 
sprinkling of priests was perhaps the most remark- 
able feature in the scene, and occasionally knots of 
ruddy-faced riflemen, in all the glory of winter fur 
caps and great-coats, disputed the narrow pavement, 
alternating with the " red " soldiers of the line. 

The city is built on very irregular ground, and 
some of the streets are so steep that it is desirable 
for new-comers to have steel spikes screwed into the 
foot-gear to combat the inclination to proneness on 
the part of the wearers. Emerging through a postern 
in the ancient battlemented wall we came out in an 
uninteresting suburb of small houses, from which a 
descent led to the margin of the water. Far as the 
eye could reach a vast snow plain extended, with 
surface broken into ridges, mounds, and long dark 
lines, and dotted with opaque blocks from which the 
church-steeples sprung aloft, indicating the sites of 
villages. The ridges were the hills over the St. Law- 
rence, the mounds its islands, and the lines its banks, 
which expand widely on the left to embrace the 
sweep of the St. Charles Lake, on which stands the 
projecting ledge of the eastern part of the city. 

As we approached the Lake, over which our route 
lay, black specks, which were resolved into sleighs, 
or men and women on foot, were visible making 
their way over the ice, which was marked by lines of 
bushes and branches of trees dressed up in the snow 
so as to indicate the route, and far away similar 
black specks could be made out crossing the St, 

5* 



94 CANADA. 

Lawrence below, which has now become the great 
highway. But not a very smooth road. The surface 
is far from being level, and consists indeed of a suc- 
cession of undulations in which the profound cavities 
sometimes give one a sense of insecure travelling. 

On the whole, however, the expedition was much 
to be enjoyed, the air was bracing, and the cojd not 
intense, and the scene " slid into the soul" with all 
its deep tranquillity. Doubtless it produced a very 
different effect on the red-nosed Britons who were 
keeping watch and ward on the ramparts of the 
citadel, or on the poor " habitant " trudging patiently 
beside his sleigh-load of wood, and knowing that 
snow is his portion for the next five months. 

On our right a continuous movement of white 
rugged masses, to all appearance like a stream of 
polar bears, betokened the course of the unfrozen St. 
Lawrence ; on our left rose the high bank of the lake 
over which we were travelling, and cottages of the 
villagers ; before us the sleighs were streaming to- 
wards a point which ran out into the river and beyond 
which there seemed to be a shallow bay. This was 
the point at which the Montmorenci River, recover- 
ing from its fall, expanded into a broad sheet at its 
junction with the greater river. Here we arrived in 
about an hour. 

At the Point there were a few houses, some vessels 
imbedded in the snow, and piles of sawn timber and 
deal planks, and a great concourse of sleighs ; and 
beyond it, looking up to the left, at the distance of 
some half-mile, we saw a glistening sugar-loaf of 
snow, on the summit of which the creaming, yellow- 
tinged mass of the Falls apparently precipitated 
itself from the high precipice which bars the course 
of the stream. On the snow between us and the 
sugar-loaf, and up the white sides of the latter, little 
black objects were toiling with small progress, but 
at intervals one of them, gliding from the top of the 
cone like a falling star in the Inferno, rushed prone 



THE CONE. 95 

to the base, and thence carried by the impetus of the 
descent skimmed over the ice towards us for hun- 
dreds of yards, like a round shot, till its force was 
spent. 

Of the crowd gathered at the Point nearly every 
one had the small hand-sleigh, something like a tiny 
truck with iron runners, under the arm, known in the 
vernacular as a " tarboggin," of the derivation of 
which it is better to confess ignorance. A few were 
provided with sleighs of ampler proportions, and all 
the visitors were bent on tarboggining it, either from 
a shoulder of the Cone or from the summit of the 
mass itself. 

As we approached over the snow the natives, men 
and women, flew past us on their way after a rush 
down the Cone, shouting to the by-standers to take 
care. Sometimes two were together, the lady seated 
on the front part of the machine, the man behind 
lying on his face with his feet stretched out so as to 
guide the sleigh by the smallest touch against the 
ice. At a distance the pleasure-seekers looked like 
some hideous insects impelled towards us with in- 
credible velocity. As they came near and flew past, 
the expression of their countenances by no means 
indicated serene enjoyment. 

Near the Coneitself a crowd of "tarboggin" hirers 
and guides beset us and guaranteed a safe descent, 
but it seemed a doubtful pleasure at best, and there 
was some chance of breaking limb, as we were told 
happened frequently during the season. We ascended 
to the lower shoulder of the Cone by steps in the snow, 
and gazed on the scene with some curiosity. Not 
only were the people launching themselves from the 
Cone, but more adventurous still there were who, 
climbing up the steep side of the precipice, tarboggin 
under arm, at last reached some vantage snow, by 
the side of the Fall, where they threw themselves 
flat on the sleigh, and then came rushing down with 
a force which carried them clear up the side of the 



96 CANADA. 

lower ledge of the Cone and over it, so that they 
were once more plunged downwards, and were borne 
off towards the St. Lawrence. 

It could now be very plainly seen that the Falls 
fell behind the Cone into a boiling turbulent basin, 
which fretted the edge of the ice and repelled its 
advances. Although much diminished in volume 
the body of water, which makes a leap of 250 feet 
down a sheer rock face into the caldron, was suffi- 
ciently large to present all the finest characteristics 
of a waterfall, but it was at times enveloped in a 
mist of snow, or rather of frozen spray, which blew 
into eyes, mouth, ears, and clothes, and penetrated 
to the very marrow of one's bones. And it is of 
this ever-falling frozen rain the Cone is built, and as 
the winter lengthens on the Cone grows higher and 
higher, till in favorable seasons it reaches an altitude 
of 120 feet. It is as regular as the work of an archi- 
tect, and, I need not say, much more beautiful. At 
present it had not attained its full growth, and was 
only 80 feet in height — but its symmetry was of 
Nature's own handiwork. The Falls are in a nan'ow 
concave cup of rock crested with pine forests, and 
its sides now forbid the ascent, which is practicable 
in summer tinle by a series of natural steps in the 
strata. The waters cover this young cone with wings 
of spray and foam, and flittering, tremulous, and 
unsubstantial as they are, it is nevertheless from their 
aerial vapors that the solid and sturdy ice-mountain 
grows up. 

Of its substantial nature we had an excellent proof 
— of a human, practical kind ; for, obeying many 
invitations, we walked along a snow-path which led 
to a portal cut in the solid oxide of hydrogen, and 
entering found ourselves in a hot and stuffy apart- 
ment, excavated from the body of the Cone, in which 
there was an Americanized bar, with drinks suited to 
the locality, and as much want of air as one would 
find in a house in the Fifth Avenue of New York. 



TARBOGGINING. 97 

It was full of people, who drank whiskey and other 
strong waters. 

I know not by what seduction overcome, but, some- 
how, so it happened, that one of my companions, on 
our return to the outer air and light, was led to sac- 
rifice himself on a tarboggin, and yielded to a demon 
guide. I watched him toiling on, with painful steps 
and slow, doggedly up the path towards the slippery 
summit, and, when he had gained it, I slid down 
below to observe the result of the experiment, and 
judge whether it looked pleasant or not. He was 
but an item among many, but 1 knew he was among 
the braves des braves^ and had received a baptism of 
fire in the trenches of Sebastopol, which had rained 
a very font of glory in India, and scarcely paled in 
China. I watched him assuming the penal attitude 
to which the young tarbogginer is condemned, and 
after a balance for a moment on the giddy height, 
his guide gave a kick to the snow, and down like a 
plunging bomb flew the ice - winged Icarus. He 
passed me close ; I could see and mark him well. 
Never, to judge from facial expression, could man 
have been in deadlier fear. With hard-set mouth, 
staring and rigid eyes, and aspect quite antipathetic 
to pleasure, he careered like one who is falling from 
a house-top, and his countenance had scarce assumed 
its wonted placid look when I met him gasping and 
half faint. And yet he had the astounding audacity 
to say, " It was delicious. Never had a more delight- 
ful moment," when he came back pale and panting 
from his flight. 

We returned from the Falls by a hilly, rough road 
over the bank of the Lake, and arrived at our hotel 
in time to dress for dinner, to which I was invited 
at the house of a Canadian gentleman, I think an 
Englishman by birth, who entertained us right hos- 
pitably. 

There is a wonderful calm in the conversation of 
the Canadians, perhaps a little too much so, but it is 



98 CANADA. 

a relief from the ambitious restlessness of the com- 
mon American. The Canadian mind suffers as the 
mind of every country which is not a nationality 
must suffer, and caution assumes the place of enter- 
prise. If the Americans knew the business of diplo- 
macy a little better, and could but restrain the dem- 
ocratic vice of boastful threatening and arrogant 
menace, they could have alienated Canada from our 
cold rule long ago, even though Canada would have 
lost by the change many privileges and a cheap pro- 
tection to her industry, commerce, and social expan- 
sion. 

February 10th. — To-day I paid my respects to 
His Excellency the Governor, Viscount Monck, and 
proceeded to visit the citadel, which is now occu- 
pied by a battalion of the 60th Rifles under Colonel 
Hawley. Independently of the historical associa- 
tions which attach to this commanding-looking work, 
I was attracted to it by the consideration that it has 
twuce saved Canada to Great Britain. I am bound 
to say that, in my poor opinion, it will never do so 
again, if left in its present condition. The works, 
once strong, have lost much of their importance since 
the introduction of long-range artillery, and the arma- 
ment is in a very imperfect condition, consisting of 
old-fashioned pieces of small calibre, which could 
furnish no reply to a battery established on the 
heights across the St. Lawrence. 

The citadel itself has in its construction some of 
the points of a regular fortress after Vauban, and on 
the river side the parapets tower aloft from a steep 
rock, which puts one in mind of the site of the plat- 
form at Berne ; but on the east side it is hampered 
by houses and by the suburbs of the city ; and it 
could be approached without much difficulty from the 
other side, as soon as a lodgment could be effected 
on the Heights of Abraham. The fosses and ditches 
were partially filled with snow, which obscured the 
ground and the adjacent country, if such whiteness 



THE CITADEL. 99 

can obscure anything. Colonel Hawley was good 
enough to show us over the works and point out the 
objects of interest as far as they could be discerned. 
Among them were some ancient iron guns on which 
Great Britain ought not to rely for very effective 
service in the defence of the place. 

But some new heavy guns have recently been 
mounted, others are to follow, and as the ordnance 
stores in Canada will soon be replenished with the 
best description of pieces, there then need be no ap- 
prehension for Quebec on the score of weak artillery ; 
or for a position that is the key of Quebec, which is 
most emphatically the master-key of Canada. 

The outworks of the citadel itself, however, are 
not by any means in a satisfactory condition ; even 
the high parapet overlooking the lower town might 
be crumbled away and expose the interior of the 
place ; in one particular part of this work the guns 
are masked by blocks of houses, the windows of 
which actually look into the interior of the citadel, 
and the fire of the place could be so impeded, and 
the defence so cramped by the existing enceinte^ that 
1 very much doubt whether it would not be better to 
remove the latter altogether. 

We trudged patiently around the long lines of 
parapet in the snow, now looking down upon the 
river clamorous with its burden of ice, and on the 
tortuous streets of the old-fashioned town. In sum- 
mer and in the open months the St. Lawrence is 
thickly studded with ships ; and dense forests of 
masts line the course of its banks ; but now the only 
specimen of commercial enterprise on its bosom con- 
sisted of a few canoes struggling backwards and 
forwards through ice and water with their scanty 
freights. 

Inside the citadel, cherry-cheeked riflemen were 
playing like schoolboys in the snow. In spite of 
temptation the regiment was in good condition ; and 
although in modern days some objection might be 



^rfC, 



too CANADA. 

taken to the closeness of their quarters in summer, 
the British soldiers who served under Wolfe would 
have been greatly astonished if they could have seen 
the comforts enjoyed by, and the cares bestowed on, 
their descendants. Even those much-neglected, in- 
jured Penelopes, the soldiers' wives, are tolerably well 
off in their quarters, somewhat too crowded, it is true, 
but still more comfortable than at Aldershot or the 
Tower. 

After a long march along the parapet, in which I 
stumbled across more rotting gun-carriages, useless 
mortars, and bad platforms than I care to mention, 
we visited the Arinory, which is near the parade- 
ground of the citadel. The stock of fire-arms is ar- 
ranged with great taste, and the cleanliness and 
effectiveness of all the material reflected credit on the 
storekeeper. 

Sonje of the contents consisted of very interesting 
rifles of renowned makers in former days, with carved 
stocks, flintlocks, and barrels encrusted with gold, 
intended as presents to Indian chiefs and warriors of 
tribes sufficiently strong to cause us injury by their 
hostility or render us service by their alliance. Old 
flintlock muskets of inferior quality, with barrels 
like so many feet of cast-iron piping, intended for the 
indiscriminate destruction of friend or foe ; horse- 
pistols of the fashion in vogue one hundred years 
ago, and the like, were to be found in the same 
spacious apartment, which contained specimens of 
the most recent improvements in fire-arms. Formerly 
flint pistols were served out to the frontier patrols, 
but of course percussion locks have, for many years, 
been given to all those employed in the service of 
the Crown in a military capacity. Some worthy 
official at home, however, still continues to send out 
barrels of flints with laudable punctuality, as he has 
not been relieved by superior order from the necessity 
of keeping up the supply of these articles. We have 
all heard of the forethought evinced by the home 



RED-TAPE THOUGHTFULNESS. 101 

authorities, when they sent out water-tanks for our 
lake flotilla, forgetting that they were borne on an 
element quite fit for drinking. But 1 heard in the 
citadel of a still more remarkable instance of thought- 
ful ness. 

A ship arrived at Quebec some time ago with an 
enormous spar reaching from her bowsprit to her 
taffrail consigned to the storekeeper. It had been 
the plague of the ship's company, it had been in 
everybody's way, and had nearly caused the loss of 
the vessel in some gales of wind. The whole re- 
sources of the quartermaster-general's department 
were taxed to get it safely on shore, and transport it 
to the heights. And what was it ? A flag-staff for 
the citadel. And what was it made of? A stout 
Canadian pine, which had probably been sent from 
the St. Lawrence in a timber-ship to the government 
ofl[icials at home, who, having duly shaped and 
pruned it into a flag-staff", returned it to the land of 
its birth at some considerable expense to John Bull. 

The citadel is of no mean extent, but covers about 
forty acres of ground, and necessarily requires a very 
strong garrison ; if they were exposed to shell or 
vertical fire from the opposite side of the river, or 
from the western side of the place, as there is no de- 
fence provided, they would certainly suffer great loss. 
It is obvious that a permanent work must be built at 
Point Levi, to sweep the approaches and prevent the 
establishment of hostile batteries on the river. A 
regular bastion with outworks should be constructed 
on the heights above the point, in order to make 
Quebec safe. 

There are also dangers to be apprehended from the 
occupation of the railway terminus at Riviere du 
Loup which do not affect Quebec immediately, but 
are, nevertheless, to be carefully guarded against. In 
the event of war appearing imminent, a temporary 
work to cover the terminus on the land side, and 
sweep the river, would be necessary. 



102 CANADA. 

There exist the remains of some outworks in ad- 
vance of the citadel, which are so well placed that it 
would be very desirable to reconstruct defences on 
their sites. They are called the French works, and 
their position does credit to the skill of the engineer 
who chose it. 

The British flag has waved for jnst 102 years from 
Cape Diamond, but the Fleur-de-lis had fluttered on 
the same point for 220 years, with the exception of 
the three years from 1629 to 1632, when Sir David 
Kirke placed Quebec in our hands. 

Nothing proves the inaccuracy of artillery in those 
days more strikingly than the inability of the French, 
on Cape Diamond, to prevent the British transports 
landing their men at Point Levi, although the St. 
Lawrence is little more than 1000 yards broad op- 
posite the citadel. By our bombardment, hovv^ever, 
we nearly laid Quebec in the dust before the action. 

On account of the very natural remembrance of 
the glory of Wolfe's attack, his death and victory, it 
has almost been forgotten that our first attempt to 
land at Montmorenci was repulsed by Montcalm 
with the loss of 500 men ; and it was only when the 
original scheme failed, that Wolfe conceived the plan 
of recmbarking his troops, and landing above the 
town. He had 8000 regular troops; the French had 
10,000 men, but of these only five battalions were 
regular French soldiers. Montcalm believed no doubt 
that he could drive the British into the river, or force 
them to surrender, and he threw the force of his at- 
tack on the British right, which rested on the river. 
The French right, consisting of Indians and Cana- 
dians, was easily routed ; the French left, deprived 
of the services of its general and of his second in 
command, was ultimately broken, and fled towards 
the town, covered in some degree by the centre 
battalions, which fell back steadily; nor was it till 
five days after the battle that Quebec fell into our 
hands. The fire must have been exceedingly close 



WOLFE — MURRAY — ARNOLD. 103 

and desperate ; and its effects speak well for the 
efficiency of old Brown Bess at close quarters, for 
out of the force engaged, the British lost over 630, 
and the French 1500, of whom 1000 were wounded 
or taken prisoners. There was little artillery engaged ; 
for we had but one, and the French but two or three 
pieces on the heights. A very few months afterwards 
we had nigh lost that which we had so gallantly and 
fortunately gained* 

On the 28th April next year, General Murray, 
following the example of Montcalm, and depriving 
himself of the advantages which a position inside the 
walls of Quebec would have given him, moved out on 
the Heights of Abraham, with 3000 men and twenty 
guns, to oppose the French under the Chevalier de 
Levi, who were moving down upon the city. In an ill- 
conceived attack on the enemy, Murray lost no less 
than 1000 men and all his guns, and had to retreat 
to the city. He was only relieved by the arrival of a 
British squadron in the river, which compelled the 
French to retire with the loss of all their artillery. 

Looking down upon the narrow path below the 
parapet, one must do credit to the daring of Arnold, 
Montgomery, and the Americans in their disastrous 
attempt to carry the citadel by an escalade. Arnold, 
after his astonishing march and desperate perils by 
the Keimebec and Chaudiere, — which has been well 
styled by General Carmichael Smyth one of the most 
wonderful instances of perseverance and spirit of 
enterprise upon record, — followed the course pur- 
sued by Wolfe ; and embarking at Point Levi, occu- 
pied the Heights of Abraham but when Montgomery 
joined him from Montreal, it was found they had no 
heavy artillery. Thus they were forced either to 
march back again, or to try to carry the place by 
storm. Two columns, led by Arnold and Montgom- 
ery, endeavored to push through the street at the foot 
of the citadel, one from the east and another from 
the west. 



104 CANADA. 

The Canadians say, that after Montgomery car- 
ried the entrenchment, which extended from the foot 
of the cliff to the river, he rushed at the head of his 
column, followed by a group of officers, towards a 
second work, on which was mounted a small field- 
piece. The Americans were just within twenty yards 
when a Canadian fired the gun, which was loaded 
with grape. Montgomery and the officers who fol- 
lowed him were swept down in a heap of killed and 
wounded, and the column at once fled in confusion. 
Arnold, who had forced his way into the houses 
under the citadel, was carried back wounded soon 
after his gallant advance ; and the Canadians again 
claim for one of their own countrymen, named Dam- 
bourges, the honor of having led the sortie from the 
citadel which charged the Americans, and forced 
those who were not slain to surrender. 

Certainly the Canadians showed upon that occa- 
sion, as no doubt they would again, a strong indis- 
position to fraternize with the American apostles of 
liberty, equality, and fraternity; they harassed their 
communications, and, under their seigneurs, cut off 
several detachments. The attempt on Quebec was 
never repeated ; and the Americans fared but ill in 
both their Canadian campaigns. 

A well-organized expedition made in winter time 
would now be attended with far greater danger than 
it was in former days, and if the snow remained in 
good condition, artillery, provisions, and munitions 
of war could be transported with greater facility than 
on the ordinary country roads. Quebec would, 
under these circumstances, be deprived of the co- 
operation of the fleet ; but with the improvement in 
the defence which would be effected by the erection 
of a regular work at Point Levi, and by the altera- 
tions indicated in the citadel itself, Quebec would be 
in a position to resist any force the Americans might 
direct against it, and would have nothing to fear ex- 
cept from regular siege operations, which there was 



QUEBEC. 105 

no chance of interrupting or raising. It would be 
most important to have the feelings of the inhabitants 
enlisted on our side. I fear there is reason to believe 
that they are antagonistic to the Americans, rather 
than violently enamored of ourselves. 

Having enjoyed a view from the Flag-staff Tower, 
350 feet above the river, which in summer must be 
one of the grandest in the world, and which even now 
was full of interest, my visit to the Citadel was ter- 
minated by lunch in the mess-room, and I returned 
homewards through the city. I was encircled with 
people enjoying the keen bright air, though the ther- 
mometer was twenty degrees below freezing point. 

Not the least interesting to me of the people were 
the hahitans in their long robes gathered in round the 
waist by scarlet or bright-colored sashes, with long 
boots, and fur caps, and French faces, chatting in 
their Old- World French ; and the monks, or regular 
clergy, who moved as beings of another age and world 
through the more modern types of civilization, — such 
as fast officers in fast sleighs, and the Anglicized 
families in their wheelless caleches. I had the honor 
of an invitation to dine at the club called Stadacona, 
which is a corruption or modification of Indian 
words signifying " the site of a strait," where I met a 
number of the citizens of Quebec at an excellent sub- 
stantial dinner, which had far more of English tastes 
than of French cookery about it. The conversation 
did not disclose any symptoms of the tendency to- 
wards Americanization which the Northern journals 
are so fond of attributing to the people of Canada ; 
but it was perceptible that a war with America was 
regarded as an evil which could only fall on Canada 
because of her connection with Great Britain, and 
that Great Britain ought therefore to take a main 
part in it. The Canadians are proud of the part 
borne by De Salaberry and others in the former war; 
but, greatly as the country has advanced, I doubt if 
there is now such a population of ready, hardy fight- 



106 CANADA. 

ing men as then existed ; for most of the hunters, 
lumberers, and nomad half-castes, who cannot be 
called settlers, have been absorbed in cultivated lands 
and settled habits. The appointment of British offi- 
cers to organize and command the volunteers has given 
offence ; and I think it would be advisable, if not 
necessary, in case of actual war, to let the volunteers 
choose their officers within certain limits, and to give 
the authorities corresponding to our lords-lieutenant 
of counties power to name the commanding officers 
of corps, under the sanction of the Governor-General. 



LOWER CANADA. 107 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Lower Canada and Ancient France. — Soldiers in Garrison at Quebec. — 
Canadian Volunteers. — The Governor-General Viscount Monck. — Uni- 
form in the United States. — A Sleighinff Part3', — Dinner and Calico 
Ball. 

I AM afraid that in this Lower Canada just now 
we do but occupy the position of a garrison. The 
aspect and the habit of the popular mind are foreign, 
but they are not French any more — at least modern 
French ; rather are they of an Old- World France - 
of a France when there was an ancient faith and a 
son of St. Louis ; when there was a white flag blaz- 
oned with fleur-de-lis, and a priesthood dominant — 
a France loyal, chivalrous, and bigoted, without 
knowledge and without railways, content to stand on 
ancient paths, and hating reform and active mutation. 
What a change has occuiTcd since the old Bourbon 
struck the medal with its inscription, " Francia in 
Novo Orbe Victrix, Kebeca Liberata. 1690." There 
may be many in Canada who cannot forget their 
origin and their race, kept alive in their memories by 
a common tongue, ancient traditions, and antipathy 
to a foreign rule exercised from a far-ofl" land, and 
sometimes manifested by rude, rough instruments, 
and by a mechanism of force ; but it would be well 
for them to remember that, whilst France has passed 
through many convulsions, Canada has been saved 
from external and internal foes, with the exception of 
the American invasion in 1812, and the troubles 
caused by her own disaffected people at a later period, 
whilst as an appanage of France she must have 
undergone incessant anxieties and assaults. She has 
been spared the agonies of the Revolution, the ex- 



lOS CANADA. 

haustive glories and collapse of the Empire, the 
reaction of the " Desired one " — the consequences 
of the convulsions of 1830, of 1848, of 1852. Great 
Britain, too, is bound to remember that she is deal- 
ing with a brave and ancient race, delivered to her 
rule under treaty, who have, on the whole, resisted 
many temptations, and preserved a firm attachment 
to her government in the face of an aggressive and 
prosperous Republic. Our soldiers must be taught 
to respect the people of Canada as their equals and 
fellow-subjects, — a hard lesson perhaps for imperious 
islanders, but not the less necessary to learn, if we 
would preserve their attachment and our territories. 

In justice to them I must say that the 60th Rifles 
gave no occasion to the people to complain, though 
Quebec is not destitute of its " rough " fellows, and 
of provocations ; and that during my stay in Canada 
I only heard of one instance in which officers or men 
could be accused of indiscretion or want of respect 
for the people. Whiskey is shockingly cheap and 
atrociously bad, and public houses are only too 
numerous, so that the base upon which the evils 
which afflict the soldier rest is not wanting here any 
more than at home. 

A garrison rule must be very galling unless the 
officers and men are minded to behave themselves, 
and it would cause me regret if my observations of 
some regrettable circumstances in that relation were 
confirmed by larger experience. Of course the peas- 
ants are provoking ; they are heavy and coarse, rely- 
ing on their vis inertice, and aggressively pa-ssive. 
The other day, for instance, w^hen Lord Monck was 
leading his sleigh party, several country carts came 
down from the opposite direction in the deep track, 
and it was with the utmost difficulty the driver of our 
party avoided collision with them, as the habitans 
would not get out of the way. Still one does not like 
to see young Greenhorn of the Invincibles flicking up 
the bourgeoisie with his whip as he whisks round a 



DINNER AT LORD MONCK'S. 109 

corner, for not getting out of the way. A gallant 
captain of volunteer artillery complained greatly of 
matters of this kind, but he also expressed very un- 
reasonable jealousy respecting the appointment of 
English officers to superintend and organize and com- 
mand the force. 

February 11th. — Still more snow falling, and the 
cold sharper than ever. Visited the Parliament 
Houses and Library, of which more hereafter; saw 
the Ursuline Chapel; called on Mr. Cartier, Mr. 
Macdonald, Mr. Cauchon, and Mr. Gait, members 
of the Ministry, to whom I had introductions. In 
the evening dined with the Governor-General and 
Lady Monck at Government House. Although His 
Excellency has been but a short time in the coun- 
try, and succeeded an able, energetic man, he has 
already gained the confidence of men difficult to 
win, and gives fair promise of administering the 
affairs of the provinces with sagacity and vigor. It 
occurred to me, considering the position of Canada, 
that, to escape from the consequences of divided 
views and command, it would be desirable to have 
the military and civil administration in one hand at 
critical junctures, or to send out a soldier as Gov- 
ernor-General. To be a good soldier one must be 
gifted with the faculties which constitute a good 
ruler, and the civilian can only possess those same 
qualities minus the special knowledge of the pro- 
fessional military man. Lord Monck, however, has 
applied himself with ability and zeal to the consider- 
ation of the provincial defences. 

The table of the Canadian Viceroy was elegant 
and hospitable ; and it was a relief to the eye to 
catch such semblance of state as was afforded by the 
scarlet uniforms and gold lace of the aides-de-camp, 
military secretary, and others of His Excellency's 
household, who were at dinner, after the long mo- 
notony of American black. Not but that now and 
then uniform was creeping in at private dinner-tables 

G 



110 CANADA. 

in the States also, principally on the persons of for- 
eign-born officers. But it is, or rather it was, op- 
posed to the custom of the country. 

I remember Mr. Seward telling me one day, when 
we met in Washington, that it was contrary to eti- 
quette for a foreigner to wear the livery of his royal 
master or mistress in the United States. Soon after- 
wards I saw at table a colonel in full uniform of the 
French infantry ; but, on inquiry, I learned he was 
in command of a New York regiment composed of 
his exiled compatriots ; and a very gallant regiment 
— in spite of its Anglophobia, loudly expressed dur- 
ing the Trent affair — it proved itself. Even here 
let me tell a story. When the colonel in question, 
who had been for many years a journalist in New 
York, appeared in Washington, after getting his 
commission, he repaired to the house of an astute 
and witty diplomatist, with whom he had an ancient 
intimacy. " Ah ! my dear colonel," exclaimed the 
Minister, " by accepting the command of your regi- 
ment, you have cut short the friendship of ten 
years." — " How is that. Excellence ? " — " Why, how 
can we ever meet again as of yore? I cannot dine 
with you ; for how dare I present myself in your 
camp ? " — " Why not, Excellence ? " — '' Why, my 
dear friend, do you think I could ever get my hair 
dressed well enough to please the live hundred 
French coiffeurs in your regiment ? " — " But, at all 
events, my dear Minister, I can come and dine with 
you ! " — " Impossible, my friend I How could I ven- 
ture to ask a man to dinner who has under his 
orders five hundred French cooks ! " 

More snow. The landlord is rather impressed 
with the news that the Union army is positively 
about to march on Richmond at once; and, indeed, 
it is only the sceptical mind, with some knowledge 
of facts, that can resist the effect of the constant 
iteration of falsehoods in the American papers, 
which never loses its influence on the American 
mind. 



A SLETGHTNCx PARTY. Ill 

February 12fJL — "Notwithstanding a slight fall of 
white rain, Lord Monck had a sleighing party to 
Lorette, an Indian village, where we repaired in 
great force, ladies and gentlemen, furred and muffed, 
and enjoyed ourselves greatly, lunching in a very 
pleasant rustic sort of auberge, half buried in the snow. 
These sleighing parties render a Canadian winter 
tolerable, and there is a certain degree of " chance 
of being lost" which commends them to the adven- 
turous and forms a theme for many small stories. 
On our coming home, we had nigh experienced one 
of these mild adventures, for the snow fell again and 
obscured the face of the country, — a very w^hite and 
well-washed face indeed, with no remarkable feat- 
ures in it, — and it was by chance we got on the 
track at a certain turn in the road, which was only 
marked out by the summits of the submerged fences 
and hedges peering over the drift, and looking un- 
commonly like each other all over the country. 
This little experience of travel rather dispelled no- 
tions I had of the great practicability of a winter 
campaign, for it would be quite impossible to move 
guns and troops with certainty in a country where 
all movements depended on the snow not falling, in 
opposition to the probability that it would do so. 

The officers of the 60th Rifles entertained His 
Excellency at dinner in the evening, and I had the 
honor of being invited to meet him. The entertain- 
ment took place in the mess-room of the citadel. 
Little more than a century ago, M. de Montcalm 
may have been dining on the same spot with the 
regiment of Musketeers of Guienne. Who may 
dine there in 1962 ? The evening was ended at a 
" calico " ball for the benefit of the poor of the city, 
which was attended by the townspeople only, the 
ladies being dressed in calico, which was afterwards, 
I believe, with the receipts, distributed to the indi- 
gent. 

February ISth. — Accompanied Mr. Bernard, who 



112 CANADA. 

kindly placed his knowledge and good offices at my 
disposal, to see some of the lions of the city ; and, 
thus ably conducted, I visited the Parliament Houses, 
the Library, the Ursuline Convent, the Rink, and 
many other places ; I dined in the evening with Mr. 
Gait, the Finance Minister, whom I had the pleas- 
ure of meeting at Washington some time before. 
Mr. Cartier, the head of the Administration, and 
nearly all the Ministers, were present. Afterwards 
attended a ball at Mr. Cauchon's, one of Mr. Gait's 
colleagues, which was an assemblage of the elite of 
the old French society of the place. My compan- 
ions left me to-day for England, where one was 
anxious to take his seat on the opening of Parlia- 
ment, and the other went with him, I suppose, for 
companionship's sake. 



ENGLISH OFFICERS IN THE STATES. 113 



CHAPTER IX. 

Canadian View of the American Struggle. — English Officers in the States. 
My own Position in the States and in Canada. — The Ursulines in 
Quebec. — General Montcalm. — French Canadians. — Imperial Hon- 
ors. — Celts and Saxons. — Salmon Fishing. — Early Government of 
Canada. — Past and Future. 

Whilst I was in Quebec the American papers 
ceased not to record great Union successes, impend- 
ing expeditions, and, as is their wont, to throw out 
hints of some inscrutable woe conceived by the 
head of Stanton, and to be wrought by the arm of 
McClellan on the South. " Jeff. Davis going to 
Texas or Mexico — The neck of the rebellion broken 
— Our young Napoleon preparing for the last grand 
campaign." Many of our officers were very anxious 
to visit the Federal armies, but the tone of the 
Northern press was so exceedingly virulent and in- 
sulting toward Englishmen, that the authorities, 
mistaking their license for the real opinion of Ameri- 
cans, discouraged applications for leave as much as 
possible. This was to be regretted ; the more so 
that those officers who went from Canada to the 
States were not provided with any official letters, 
and were, indeed, in some instances, misguided so 
far as to conceal their military character. It could 
not but have been most useful to our officers to have 
been enabled to take fair measure of the system and 
capability of an American army. North or South ; 
to have formed an estimate of their generals and of 
the value of their several arms — cavalry, artillery, 
and infantry, each of which presented conspicuous 
examples of what to avoid, more especially the first, 
whilst the second had peculiar features worthy of 
study, and the third was a very wonderful illustra- 
tion of the volunteer principle. 



114 CANADA. 

When I represented the importance of sending 
officers to the armies for the special purpose of exam- 
ining and reporting on their condition, I was met by 
the reply that it would be a violation of neutrality to 
dispatch commissioners to the Federal army, unless 
similar officers were sent to the Confederate head- 
quarters ; and that it would not be possible to adopt 
the latter step, as the Washington Government 
would not grant them leave to go through the lines, 
and would resent the proposal. When some officers 
were at last dispatched with an official sanction to 
the army at Yorktown, they made their appearance 
in a forlorn, destitute, and helpless condition, which 
made their companions in arms blush for them. 

For myself, I had every reason to believe that no 
objection would be made to my accompanying the 
army under General McClellan. Several senators 
who had given me their good wishes, were most de- 
sirous that 1 should be able to set off an account of 
a victory against the narrative of the retreat from 
Bull Run. Although I had been recovering a little 
from the effects of the ludicrous and malignant false- 
hoods circulated against me up to the Trent affair, I 
was tres mal vu in some quarters in Washington, and 
of course I was included in the general outburst 
against all British subjects with which the surrender 
of Mason and Slidell was accompanied. 

In Canada I had recovered health and spirits; 
nay, more — some small shreds of popularity in 
the States. The secretaries of literary institutions 
renewed their requests for lectures, the autograph 
hunters sought the post-office once more with their 
flattering though ill-spelt missives ; but there was no 
inducement to return to the States till the army of 
McClellan was actually about to take the field. The 
exploits of the army of the West had, indeed, at- 
tracted my eyes in that direction. The capture of 
Fort Henry and Fort Donelson promised well for its 
future career, but if I travelled so far out of my way 



II 



ft 

PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 115 

I should have lost my chance of seeing the most 
brilliant and important campaign. The chief interest 
was certainly concentrated on the Potomac, and in 
the operations against Richmond. The West was 
far away, and it would have been a chance against 
my letters reaching home so as to anticipate the ex- 
aggerated illusions of the New York journals. And 
so I quietly waited and watched till the news from 
the States became so triumphant and decided that 
it behooved me to return, lest some important move- 
ment should take place on the Potomac. As I could 
not be with more than one army, I then resolved to 
follow the fortunes of McClellan's great host, which 
indeed was regarded by Americans themselves with 
the greatest anxiety. And so, after a few days, I 
set about leaving cards and paying farewell visits to 
those who had so kindly entreated me in the City 
of the Strait. 

The learned institutions, the libraries, the machin- 
ery of education, the various literary and scientific 
associations, and the admirable seminaries of Que- 
bec, are most creditable to the community ; they 
would place that city on a level with some of the 
most learned of European cities of far greater an- 
tiquity ; and the public spirit and intelligence of its 
citizens have been fully evinced in the aid and sup- 
port they have rendered to institutions designed for 
the spread of knowledge. 

The public buildings have also the stamp of re- 
spectable antiquity upon them ; none of them possess 
any considerable architectural merits, but several are 
exceedingly interesting. Constant fires have proved 
nearly ruinous to the buildings erected by the orig- 
inal settlers ; and those which have been subse- 
quently built are not remarkable for beauty — in- 
deed, I may say that the Laval University is one of 
the plainest buildings it has ever been my lot to he- 
bold. 

On all sides it is admitted that the nuns of the 



116 CANADA. 

Ursuline Convent have conferred the greatest benefit 
upon the city by their unceasing devotion to the 
task of education. Many people of respectability — 
Protestants as well as Catholics — send their children 
to be educated by these excellent women, represent- 
ing the system inaugurated more than 200 years ago 
by Madeleine de Chauvigny, who, moved by grief 
for the loss of her husband to devote herself to 
Heaven, and to the spread of the Christian faith, 
sailed forth from France, and, landing at Quebec, 
established schools for the Indian girls to learn the 
faith of the white race, which was destined to destroy 
their own. 

The Ursuline Convent is a massive building, ugly 
as most convents of modern date are, standing 
amidts the houses of the city. The day I visited it 
there were no means of seeing the schools, and I was 
obliged to be content with a sight of the chapel in- 
stead. On ringing the bell by the side of a massive 
iron-bound door, I was admitted to the front of a 
grille^ through which I conveyed my wishes to the 
unseen lady who demanded the purport of my visit ; 
and, after a short delay, the clergyman attached to 
the service of the church was ready, and an old 
Swiss portress conducted me to the entrance of the 
chapel, which is of large size, of no pretensions to 
architectural beauty, and of little interest to me for 
anything but the fact that within its walls lie the 
bones of Montcalm. 

The Ursulines, however, are of opinion that they 
have got a collection of paintings of merit, and I was 
called upon to admire some extraordinary specimens 
of art very nearly approaching the class denominated 
daubs, which were not recommended even by an- 
tiquity. Although the priest bore a pure Irish pat- 
ronymic, he had never been in the British Isles, hav- 
ing been educated in France, where he was born, 
whence he came out to Canada in the course of his 
ministry. He was an agreeable, intelligent, gentle- 



MONTCALM. 117 

manly man, but he had evidently no faith in the 
pictures, and probably not much greater in some 
other remarkable decorations exhibited within the 
holy walls. The altar-piece and two or three sub- 
jects belonging probably to the old convent, rescued 
the collection from entire condemnation. 

On the wall of the chapel, on the left-hand side 
from the entrance, there is a marble slab, on Avhich 
are ensrraved the followinof words : " Honneur a 
Montcahxi ! Le destin en lui derobant la victoire I'a 
recompense par une mort glorieuse ! " The graceful 
words are due to Lord Aylmer. Montcalm received 
his death-wound from a ball fired by the only piece 
of artillery which we could get up the heights ; but 
like his great rival and conqueror he was wounded 
in the fight by a musket-shot at a comparatively 
early stage of the battle. Like Wolfe, too, Montcalm 
loved literature : " egalement propre aux batailles et 
aux academies, son desir etait d'unir aux lauriers de 
Mars les palmes de Mi nerve." 

The following is a translation of the inscription 
and 'epitaph written by the Academy of Inscriptions 
and Belles Lettres of Paris in 1761, and inscribed on 
a monument which that body had designed to erect 
in Quebec, but which never reached that city, the 
vessel on which it had been embarked having been 
lost at sea : — 

" Here Lieth 

In either hemisphere to live forever, 

LEWIS JOSEPH DE MONTCALM GOZON, 

Marquis of St. Yeran, Baron of Gabriac, 

Commander of the Order of St. Lewis, 

Lieutenant-General of the French ai-my ; 

not less an excellent citizen than soldier, 

who knew no desire but that of 

TRUE glory; 

Happy in a natural genius, improved by literature ; 

Having gone through the several steps of military honors 

with an uninterrupted lustre ; 

skilled in all the arts of war, 

the juncture of the times and the crisis of danger ; 

6* ' 



118 CANADA. 

In Italy, in Bohemia, in Germany, 

an indefatigable general : 

He so discharged his important trusts, 

That he seemed always equal to still greater. 

At length, grown bright with perils, 

sent to secure the province of Canada, 

with a handful of men, 

he more than once repulsed the enemy's forces, 

and made himself master of their forts, 

replete with troops and ammunition. 

Inured to cold, hunger, watching, and labors, 

unmindful of himself, 

. he had no sensation but foi- his soldiers : 

An enemy with the fiercest impetuosity ; 

a victor with the tenderest humanity ; 

adverse fortune he compensated with valor ; 

the want of strength with skill and activity ; 

and, with his counsel and support, 

for four years protracted the impending 

fate of the colony. 

Having, with various artifices, 

long baffled a great army, 

headed by an expert and intrepid commander, 

and a fleet furnished with all warlike stores, 

compelled at length to an engagement, 

he fell — in the first rank — in the first onset, 

warm with those hopes of religion 

which he had always cherished ; 

to the inexpressible loss of his own army, 

and not without the regret of the enemv's, 

XIV. September, A. D. MDCCLIX." 

Of his age, XLVIII. 

His weeping countrymen 

deposited the remains of their excellent General in a grave 

which a fallen bomb in bursting had excavated for him, 
recommending them to the generous faith of their enemies." 

Had his counsel been taken by de Vaudreuil, we 
never could have occupied Point Levi, and in all 
probability the expedition to Quebec would have 
failed. 

There is something exceedingly touching in the 
death of the two generals in the same battle. My 
guide, however, was more interested in calling my 
attention to the ornaments of the altar, and to a 
skull, which he assured me was that of Montcalm. 



THE FRENCH CANADIANS. 119 

" Through each lack-lustre eyeless hole, 
The gay recess of Avisdom and of wit, 
And passion's host that never brook'd control,* 

was seen filled with dust, and the priest held in his 
hand, like a cricket-ball, the home of the subtle intel- 
lect of the man who raised to such a height the 
power of France in the western world. When the 
old Indian chief told Montcalm, — " Tu es petit! 
mais je vois dans tes yeux la hauteur du chene et la 
vivacite des yeux des aigles," how little the politic, 
gallant Frenchman ever thought his skull would be 
kept in a box in a priest's cupboard, and shown as a 
curiosity to strangers from that barbarous Britain. 

I cannot say that the priest succeeded in pointing 
out anything as interesting amoti^ the pictures as 
even the skull of the Marquis de Montcalm. 

So far as I can ascertain, no Canadian painter has 
yet been inspired by the faith and devotion which 
wrought such miracles and wonders in medisBval 
Europe, to concentrate his talents on church pictures. 

There is not much good fellowship between the 
French Roman Catholics and their Irish co-religion- 
ists ; and I was told that few of the latter ever en- 
tered the chapel of the Ursulines, though they con- 
stitute an appreciable proportion of the population. 
The Canadians, indeed, retain a good deal of the old 
French sentiment, and regard the Irish very much as 
their ancestors, under St. Ruth, looked on the poor 
vassals of the Irish Jacobins. The Irish are, however, 
more energetic and restless, and do not lose by com- 
parison with the unenterprising inhabitants. 

The feelings and faith of the French Canadian 
tend to keep up all that is French in his nature. 
Small wonder that it should be so. But it may be 
doubted whether he has much sympathy with the 
Empire, though he is proud of the glory and renown 
attained by the parent stock under the " Great Gaul" 
who founded it. 

In visiting the beautiful and well-ordered Library 



120 CANADA. 

of the Houses of Parliament, the state of which does 
honor to the excellent curator, I observed several very 
handsome volumes of the most costly works marked 
with the French imperial cipher. They had, it ap- 
peared, been presented to the Canadian Parliament 
by the Emperor Louis Napoleon, and they were 
pointed out to me with much pride and pleasure ; 
but I looked in vain for any such outward and visi- 
ble sign of favor and policy on the part of the reign- 
ing House in England. The conduct of France 
towards Canada in former times, if not always just 
to the settlers, was indeed exceedingly liberal to the 
landed interest ; on one occasion some sixteen coun- 
try gentlemen were raised to the French peerage. 
The most a Canadian can hope for now is a barren 
baronetcy or the honors of the Bath. By conferring 
on our colonies, dependencies, and provinces very 
liberal democratic forms of government institutions, 
and at the same time refusing to give the counter- 
poise which an extension of the aristocratic system 
to them would bestow, we hasten the coming of the 
day when separation becomes inevitable. When 
separation takes place, the difference of institutions 
begets opposition of views and of policy, distrust, 
and, finally, collision. 

One of my New York acquaintances, who pro- 
fessed to be somewhat of a philosopher, said, one 
day, he was quite sure the colonies never would have 
revolted, no matter how high tea was taxed, if the 
king had made a few of the leading Americans peers 
of the realm. The dream of an Imperial Senate with 
representatives from all the portions of the wide- 
spread territories of Great Britain may excite the 
imagination, but it is not likely to be ever realized. 
The honors which have been conferred on such men 
as Sir Etienne Tache and Sir Narcisse Belleau, are 
highly prized, and a more liberal bestowal of the 
cheap defence of nations would do much to gratify 
the reasonable ambition of the Canadians. 



II 



ANCIENT MEMORIES. 121 

That there should be some — and not a little — > 
jealousy of foreign interference and usurpation of 
places, profits, and honors, by the English families, 
is not unnatural. I am not persuaded that it was 
right to hand over the whole direction of the volunteer 
and militia organization to British officers, who are 
by the many often identified with the last noisy ensign 
who has been playing pranks in the Rue de Mon- 
tague. The remembrances of the old rebellion have 
not altogether died out, but it appeared to me that 
the Canadians are a mild, tractable race, fond of 
justice, a little too fond of law, and quite content to 
live under any rule which secured them equal rights, 
and gave them facility for moderate litigation and 
religious exercises. 

While I was in Quebec some foolish young men 
stormed a house under a misapprehension as to its 
character. The same thing might have happened in 
Great Britain; it would have excited no feeling — 
the perpetrators might have compounded for their 
folly, or have suffered the penalty. Here the matter 
was hushed up, and some of the Canadians were 
vexed and angry. Provincials must necessarily be 
jealous of the smallest appearance of disrespect or 
show of distinctive justice between the two races. 

There are very few persons in England acquainted 
with the many ancient and glorious memories which 
endear Quebec to the French Canadians. Jacques 
Cartier is to them a greater discoverer and navigator 
than Captain Cook is to us, and a long list of names 
thoroughly French illustrate the early history of the 
city. De Frontenac, Le Chevalier de Levi, Dam- 
bourges and others are not known to those who are 
well acquainted with Wolfe and Montcalm. 

Quebec, though doubtless the oldest city existing 
on the continent, is in a very different condition from 
that in which it was for many a year after it was 
founded by Champlain, more than two centuries and 
a half ago. It is quite delightful, after a sojourn in 



122 CANADA. 

the United States, to ramble through the tortuous 
streets, lined by tall narrow windowed houses, with 
irregular gables, even though an air of something like 
decay has settled upon the place. There is no trace 
in Quebec of the feverish activity of American cities — 
no great hotels nor eager multitudes thronging the 
pavements ; but in summer the quays present a most 
animated appearance, for the noble waters of the St. 
Lawrence are then laden with stately ships, and 
traffic is carried on extensively in the exchange of the 
exhaustless forest-produce of the back country for the 
manufactures of Europe. 

The Indian squaws and their people have well- 
nigh vanished from the scene, and it would almost 
seem as though they were unfit to learn the doctrines 
of Christianity — it is certain they had not qualities to 
permit of their flourishing in the midst of Christians. 
Other colored races brought in contact with the 
white man have saved themselves from extermination 
by service ; but the individual Indian is feudatory to 
no man — he^^ays "Ich Dien" to no created being. 
The result is, that, slowly and surely, he is driven 
further and further out into the waste, or is caught 
up in the waters of civilization, and held, like the fly 
in amber, as a curious instance of the incompatibility 
of one substance with the surrounding particles of 
another. He will never again play a part in any 
contest which may take place between the British 
and Americans; notwithstanding the efforts made by 
the Confederates to use the Southern Indians in the 
present war, no adeqate results have been obtained 
for the trouble. In the War of Independence the 
Indians served on both sides, but the odium of 
employing them in the first instance against the 
colonists must undoubtedly rest on the British min- 
istry of the day. 

Although the distance from Montreal to Quebec, 
taking the course of the river, is but 180 miles, there 
is considerable difference in climate. The scenery 



I 



FRENCH CANADIANS. 123 

around the capital of the Lower Province, and the 
present seat of Government, is more elevated and 
picturesque; but the quality of the soil is not so 
favorable to agriculture. The habitant is a very dif- 
ferent being from the Scotch or English farmer; he 
regards with aversion agricultural implements of the 
new school, and woos the earth to yield its fruits with 
the most simple appliances ; he is stubborn in his 
attachment to antique customs, and if he has most 
of the virtues, he assuredly has some of the faults 
of a purely rural agricultural population. 

The events of the rebellion induced us, perhaps, to 
underrate the military capacity of the French Cana- 
dians, but they may point with pride to the deeds of 
their ancestors in defence of their soil against 
American invasion, and they would, no doubt, 
maintain in the field the reputation of the race from 
which they spring. The great defect of the native is, 
perhaps, his want of enterprise. He rarely emigrates 
to new scenes of labor, and even the inhabitant of 
the town shrinks from an encounter with the active 
American or Anglo-Saxon. Thus it is, at the present 
moment, that nearly all the agricultural and industrial 
enterprises of Lower Canada have originated with 
or been developed by persons of a different stock. 
Want of capital is the great evil which afflicts the 
inhabitants of both Canadas, and even the oil-wells 
and gold mines have, to a large extent, fallen into 
the hands of the solid men of Boston, and of the 
hard men of New England ; but the Canadians 
would behave in the face of an enemy with the 
spirit, courage, and cojjduct which they have ex- 
hibited on their own limited battle-fields. 

It would be of little value, within the limits of this 
volume, to attempt a recapitulation of the principal 
events of Canadian history, either in connection with 
its early founders or with the English government; 
but surely the materials are not wanting for an 
interesting record of the struggles of the enterprising 



124 CANADA. 

Europeans who contended so fiercely with barbarous 
races and an inclement clime to found what already 
promises to be a great nation. The savage has died 
out, or he has been civilized into a degraded creature 
for whom no place seems left at the great table of 
nature, and the civilized man his successor has learned 
to control and mollify the influences of climate, and 
to extort from the soil fruits in abundance. But 
Canada is by no means as cold as it has been painted, 
or rather, it would be more proper to say, the cold 
there is not so intolerable as we think. It would 
astonish many people in this country to learn that 
the Northern States of America suffer more from cold 
than does the vast frontier region of Canada which 
borders on the Lakes. In Iowa, for instance, the cold 
is more intense than at Montreal. Grapes and 
peaches ripen on the Canadian shores of the great 
lakes; plums, melons, tomatoes, and apples thrive and 
grow to perfection in the provinces. As cultivation 
advances the rigor of winter is appreciably dimin- 
ished, although the farmers, with that customary 
want of submission to the will of Providence which 
characterizes all people who live in dependence on 
the seasons, complain that the frost is not as severe 
as it was in the good old times, and that they are 
deprived of the advantages of long-enduring snow 
and rigid winters. 

What glorious visions of shooting now and of 
fishing in spring had opened before me, if the Federal 
army would only stay quiet ! Not, indeed, that there 
is much sport for the rifle or fowling-piece now left 
in this part of Canada in winter, except moose, for 
which I did not care much, but that such strange 
scenes could be visited and described. In open 
weather there is a little shooting of quails, partridges, 
and ground game; before winter sets in there is 
plenty of wild ducks, but it is in fishing that the 
province is most tempting. The Godbout, uncertain 
as it is, would tempt any fisherman to a pilgrimage — 



SOCIETY IN QUEBEC. 125 

a river in which one man, Captain Strachan, played 
and landed forty-two salmon and grilse in two half- 
days. But then the black flies and mosquitoes! 
Well, of this more liereafter. Though little that 
more must be, as long as there is such a guide-book 
as that of Dr. Adamson — the charming, amiable, and 
accomplished gentleman, in whom I was rejoiced to 
recognize the type of le vrai gentilhomme irlandais ; 
who knows everything that ever was done or 
thought by Canadian salmon, and is ever willing 
to impart his knowledge. 

To a young officer fresh from a Mediterranean or 
home station — unless he were at Aldershot or the 
Curragh, perhaps — Quebec must appear rather dull. 
He has none of the excellent sporting for great and 
small game which India affords. Society presents 
itself under a new aspect. A people speaking a 
different language are not his servants, nor his kith 
and kin, and yet he must protect and fight for them. 
He has no sympathy with a nationality which is 
prouder of Montcalm than of Wolfe, and which 
claims, nevertheless, the lions and the harp as ^'' notre 
drapeau.''^ So if he be unwise and unreasonable, 
he takes dislikes and ascribes every inconvenience 
he endures, not to the policy of the mother-country 
he serves, but to the people of the province. 

I was present one evening at a ball given by one of 
the ministers, a French Canadian, at which there 
was a large assemblage of all the best people in the 
city, and I was struck by the absence of young 
officers, although many of higher rank were present. 
A lady to whom I mentioned the circumstance, said, 
" Oh I they rarely come among us, so we have left 
off asking them. If they do come, they stand with 
their backs against the wall criticizing our style and 
our dresses, and never offer to dance till supper is 
over, when they vanish." This is by no means uni- 
versally applicable to all societies or regiments, but 
it is no doubt the truth in some instances. 



126 CANADA. 

One must regret that the English language was 
not introduced into the law courts and legislature. 
Experience proves that there are no instruments so 
powerful in sustaining the exis*tence of a nationality 
as the tongue and pen. The Canadians of to-day 
affect to be French, more because they speak a 
French at which Paris laughs, than from any real 
sympathy founded on mutual interests or present 
history between France and Canada. I was assured 
by one earnest Canadian, that France had never 
forgiven the Bourbons for the fault of Louis XV., in 
ceding Canada to Great Britain. He had more 
reason probably for asserting that, but for the estab- 
lishment of our supremacy in 1765, the rebellion of 
the thirteen colonies of North America would not 
have occurred when it did. But the conquest by 
Wolfe, confirmed by treaty, put an end to most cruel 
and barbarous massacres, outrages, and petty border 
wars, between the French and English settlers and 
their auxiliary tribes of Indians, and if it had been 
attended or followed by any wise and liberal acts of 
government, must have produced very great results 
on the tone and temper of the Canadian mind. 

It would have been wonderful indeed, if, a century 
ago, when our statute-book was written in bloody 
when our fellow-subjects at home were under the 
ban of religious disability, and beaten to the earth 
beneath the weight of penal enactments, any traces 
of wisdom had been exhibited in the management 
of a distant dependency. Keeping alive the feel- 
ings of a distinct nationality by the powerful ma- 
chinery of different national laws and customs, the 
conquerors ruled the province by military law for 
more than ten long years ; but the tempest which 
agitated the American colonies was already felt in 
the air. The ministry, anxious only to drain money 
from their distant dependencies, were engaged in 
devising taxes, whilst the colonists prepared to vin- 
dicate, by force of arms, their great principle, that 



i 



RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 127 

representation was the basis of taxation. The two 
Acts of 1774 were passed to enable the government 
to raise revenues for the maintenance of the local 
government, and for the appointment of a council 
of government, nominated by the Crown. By the 
capitulation of Quebec, the free exercise of their 
religion was accorded to the Canadians. By the 
Act of 1774, the Roman Catholic Church was rec- 
ognized as established, and the " Coutume de Paris" 
accepted as the foundation of civil and equity ad- 
ministration. 

Is it not strange that Great Britain should have 
accorded such concessions to Roman Catholics and 
colonists, when the penal system was most rigor- 
ously enforced in Ireland ? But is it not stranger 
still, that the people of the American colonies, who 
were about to set themselves up as the children and 
the champions of freedom of faith and conscience, 
should have taken bitter umbrage at those very con- 
cessions! The Americans of the North bore an ex- 
ceeding animosity to the French Canadians. They 
remonstrated in fierce, intolerant, and injurious lan- 
guage with ihe people of Great Britain, for the ces- 
sion of these privileges to the Canadians, and the 
Continental Congress did not hesitate to say that 
they thought " Parliament was not authorized by the 
constitution to establish a religion fraught with san- 
guinary and impious tenets." 

In a strain of sublime impudence, considering the 
work they were ready for, the same Congress also 
expressed their astonishment that Parliament should 
have consented to permit in Canada, " a religion that 
has deluged your island with blood, and dispersed 
impiety, bigotry^ persecution, murder, and rebellion 
through the world." 

It may be worth while to notice the fact that the 
first notion of united action on the part of the Brit- 
ish North American Colonies may have been devel- 
oped by the British Government, and that the idea 



128 CANADA. 

of independence was suggested by the very recom- 
mendations to self-defence which came from the 
mother-country. The Convention of Delegates at 
Albany in 1754, which met in consequence of the 
advice tendered by the Home Government, adopted 
a federal system, which contained, in effect, the germ 
of the United States. Though this and similar 
propositions were not entertained, the growth of such 
an idea must have been rapid indeed. In the Brit- 
ish colonial system there was the breath of life — a 
little fanning, and the whole body was alive and 
active. In the Canadian system there was only the 
animating spirit of dependency on France, and on a 
system in France, which was perishing before the 
sneers of the new philosophy. 

The French Canadians of the present day, in ac- 
cusing the British Government of a hundred years 
ago of want of liberality and foresight in the admin- 
istration of their newly acquired territory, are wil- 
fully blind to the sort of government which they 
received from the Bourbons. The dominion of a 
foreign race, however, is always galling, be it covered 
ever so thickly with velvet, and all its acts are 
regarded with suspicion and dislike. The conces- 
sions and liberality of the British Government which 
drew forth such indignant protests from the bigoted 
New Englanders, was ascribed to fears of Canadian 
revolt, or to a selfish desire to conciliate the good- 
will of subjects who might become formidable ene- 
mies. If England lost the American Colonies be- 
cause she refused to accept a principle which, 
however sound and just, was certainly new and not 
accepted as of universal application, she needed not 
to apprehend the recurrence of a separation, forcible 
or peaceable, of Canada on any such grounds. It is 
impossible for a country to be held by a more slender 
cord ; and in all but the actual exercise of the sover- 
eign style, title, and attributes, Canada is free and 
independent. If the sentiment or the nationality of 



FUTURE COMBINATIONS. 129 

the Lower Canadians ever induces them to seek the 
protection or rule of any European State, they will 
no doubt at once come into collision with Upper 
Canada and the United States, and we can but pity 
their infatuation. If Upper Canada thinks to better 
herself by separation, and union with the Western 
States, Great Britain assuredly will never hold her by 
force. It would be useless to discuss the rights and 
obligations of a sovereignty and its nominal depen- 
dency in relation to mutual succor in time of war ; 
but it seems only fair that the great permanent 
works necessary for strategical purposes, and as points 
d^appui for the forces of the protecting military 
power, should be made and repaired and garrisoned 
at the imperial expense, whilst on the mass of the 
population must be placed the task of rising to de- 
fend their country from invasion, assisted by such 
imperial troops as can be spared from the occupation 
of the fixed points of defence. The Canadians must 
not content themselves with the empty assertion that 
if their country should be invaded Great Britain 
alone is attacked. Let them emulate the Old Eng- 
land Colonies, and the conduct of their ancestors in 
1812. The United States bear them no good- will ; 
and as the only power from which Canada has any- 
thing to fear, the Americans would be just as likely 
to make war against the Province as against the 
Empire, and trust to their own impregnability, ex- 
cept at sea, as a guarantee against any dangerous 
consequences. 

The future is beyond our ken. There are prophets 
who long ago predicted the amalgamation of the 
Upper Province with the West, and who now find 
greater hope for the realization of their soothsayings 
in the approaching dissolution of the Federal States. 
Others there are who see at no distant time the re- 
establishment of a French dependency on the north- 
ern portion of the Anglo-Saxon States, already 
hemmed in on the slave border by the shadowy out- 



130 CAXADA. 

lines of an empire under French protection. When 
we see what has taken place on that continent within 
the last hundred years, it is not to be said that com- 
binations and occurrences much more wonderful 
will not come to pass before the present century- 
closes. The policy of a State, as the duty of an 
individual, is to do what is right and leave the future 
to work out its destiny. 



CANADIAN HOSPITALITY. 131 



CHAPTER X. 

Canadian Hospitality. — Muffins. — Departure for the States. — Desertions. 
Montreal again. — Southerners in Montreal. — Drill and Bnow-Shoes. — 
Winter Campaigning. — Snow-Drifts. — Military Discontent. 

Although my residence in Quebec was very 
short, I left the city with regret. Compared with 
the cities of the States, its antiquity is venerable and 
its ways are peace ; but from what I heard of public 
amusement in summer time I should say that life 
here would be found dull, as compared with exist- 
ence in a European capital, or in a city so vainly 
gay and profitably festive as New York. There is 
no great wealth among the people, but a moderate 
competency is largely enjoyed, and neither wealth 
nor poverty attains undue dimensions. 

I found at Quebec a very agreeable society, the 
tone of feeling which prevails in a capital, the 
utmost hospitality. Had I had a hundred mouths 
they would here all have been kept busy. Invita- 
tions came in scores, and were to be resisted with 
difficulty. Knowing all this I am the more as- 
tonished at the recent statements which I have 
heard, that the Canadians have not extended any 
civilities to our officers. If so, a great change must 
have taken place. I am not now talking of sleigh- 
ing parties, but of the hospitality of the inner house. 
The fair Canadians may have been too kind in ac- 
cepting the name and position of " muffins " from 
the young Britishry ; but the latter cannot say they 
have suffered much in consequence. A muffin is 
simply a lady who sits beside the male occupant of 
the sleigh — Sola cum solo, " and all the rest is 
leather and prunella." 



132 CANADA. 

The social system is intended rather for the com- 
fort of the inner life, and for the development of 
domestic happiness, than for such external glare and 
glitter as Broadway delights in, or for such unsound 
social relations as mark the America of hotels. The 
great artists who adorn the drama or the lyric stage 
can rarely be bribed sufficiently high to visit these 
northern regions ; but I doubt whether there is not a 
better taste in art among the people of Quebec than 
there is to be found in most cities of the same size 
in the United States. 

On a gloomy winter evening I was once more 
battling with the ice on the St. Lawrence ; and, after 
a long passage, left Point Levi for Montreal. 

A weary life-long night it seemed, and a still 
wearier day in the train. It was close upon twenty- 
one hours of stuffy, food less travel, ere we arrived at 
Montreal. Nor can I remember anything worth re- 
cording of all that linked weariness, long drawn out, 
except that, halting at a roadside station in the night, 
I came on a detachment of the Scots Fusilier Guards, 
who had come up from Riviere du Loup, after their 
passage in sleighs over the snows of New Brunswick, 
and were in high spirits, looking very red in the face, 
and bulky in comparison with the lean habitans, 
" Misthress," quoth one of them to the woman at the 
bar, " wad ye gi'e me a dhrap av whuskie ? " The 
Hebe complied with this request, and for some very 
small pecuniary consideration filled him out nearly a 
tumblerful of the dreadful preparation known in the 
States as " Fortyrod." The soldier tasted it, blinked 
his eyes, squeezed them close, pursed up his lips, 
smacked them, gave a short watery cough, smelt the 
mixture, and, looking at his comrades, exclaimed, 
" My Gude ! Hech ! I 'd jist as soon face a charge 
of baynets." After that proem I was prepared to 
see the hardy warrior eject the fluid, but he proceeded 
to a most inconsequent act ; for, nodding his head, 
he said, "Sae, here 's t' ye, my lads," and tossed down 
the fire-water incontinent. 



I 



RETURN TO MONTREAL. 133 

There were several companies of H. M.'s 63d Regi- 
ment in the train, also going up to Montreal. It did 
not escape me that at the station pickets were look- 
ing sharply out for intending deserters, who might 
have cut away in the darkness ; and I was told, and 
felt inclined to believe it might be worth their while, 
that there were Yankee crimps lying in wait at all 
the stations to help the deserters across the frontier, 
if they could induce them to leave their colors. The 
anxiety and annoyance caused by desertion, and by 
the chance of it, add to the dissatisfaction which is 
now expressed in our army in Canada ; but I must 
say I cannot quite sympathize with the violence and 
exaggeration in which that dislike finds vent. 

Captains of companies suffer losses, but in many 
instances they have only themselves to blame. The 
men, seduced by high pay, either in the States or as 
farm-laborers in Canada, are seized with an irresist- 
ible desire to quit the service abruptly, " without 
leave," and resort to ingenious artifices to escape. 
Sometimes a whole guard will march off bodily, non- 
commissioned officers and all ; occasionally one of 
the number will submit to be handcuffed, and will 
be marched by his comrades through the post as a 
deserter, or a man will put on a sergeant's jacket 
or sew chevrons on his coat-sleeve, and march off 
his party as if they were going out on picket or pa- 
trol duty. Such artifices cannot always be success- 
fully encountered, but they are to be met to some 
extent by increased vigilance. 

I need not say that it was with satisfaction I ex- 
changed my railway van for a comfortable room in 
the house of Mr. Rose at Montreal. The news of an 
immediate advance of the army of the Potomac 
which had been received from New York turned out 
to be untrue ; no immediate hurry was there need 
for to go down to the seat of war. I dined at the 
club, where we had a very agreeable party, enlivened 
by the fervent conversation of some Southern gentle- 

7 



134 CANADA. 

men of the little colony of refugees which finds shelter 
in Montreal under the British flag. There is some 
work of Nemesis in the condition of these gentle- 
men. Here are Charleston people, who claimed the 
right to imprison British subjects because they had 
dark skins, now taking refuge under the British flag, 
from the exercise of the very power which enabled 
them to maintain their claim, and apologizing to 
Englishmen for the peculiar institution on the ground 
that they treated their niggers better than the Yan- 
kees do. 

The snow again falling, and the day cold. On the 
Sunday after my arrival, I walked into town in moc- 
casons, and attended service in Christ Church, where 
the ritual was in close imitation of the cathedral 
formula at home. I saw a party of the Guards 
marched to church, who had an air of profound dis- 
content on their manly features. Some Canadians 
near me evidently regarded them as hardened here- 
tics going to a place of punishment, and at the same 
time deserving it as foreign mercenaries ; but the 
Guards certainly did not seem to care one farthing 
for their opinion, if they understood the expression 
of it. The building is very handsome ; but, in spite 
of the cold outside, I found the atmosphere unbear- 
able, owing to the stoves, iron pipes, or some other 
undesirable calorific apparatus. The sermon was 
respectable and frigid. 

I spent the next day visiting the remarkable places 
and persons passed over in Montreal on my last brief 
visit. In the evening I dined with Colonel Kelly and 
H. M.'s 47th Regiment, who entertained Sir Fen- 
wick Williams and the officers of the Guards then 
in garrison, and on the following morning at 9 o'clock 
I drove over to the Barracks to see a drill of the regi- 
ment on the St. Lawrence in snow-shoes. Sir Fen- 
wick Williams and some staff" officers were on the 
ground. The regiment was admirably handled by 
Colonel Kelly, and the scene was very novel and 



WINTER CAMPAIGNING. 135 

amusing. The regiment was in excellent condition : 
the men seemed rather to like the fan with the gnow- 
shoes, and when skirmishers were thrown oat or 
called in at the double, there was certainty of a fall 
or two from unlacky privates tripping up in their 
shoes and tumbling in the snow, which flew like 
puffs of musketry. Fresh from parades of volun- 
teers I felt the force of Lord Clyde's maxim, — " The 
first duty of a soldier is to obey " — as I looked at 
the measured tread even at the quickest, and the 
alert, agile formations of the men to whom discipline 
was the whole scope of military intellect. There 
was, I thought, in that complex machine of many 
parts, but of only one animating, moving power, 
what would be cheaply bought by the United States 
by many hundreds of thousands of dollars for the 
purposes of war, though man to man one of their 
regiments might be more intelligent, and quite as 
capable of deeds of valor as the old 47th, of whom 
indeed not many had the Crimean medal, though the 
campaign is nov/ but a few years old. 

In the evening I dined with the Commander-in- 
Chief, Sir Fenwick Williams, and met Mr. Cartier, 
Mr. Gait, and Mr. Rose. 

The letters from England which came by every 
mail showed that the position was not much under- 
stood, as it was believed there would be a speedy 
movement of the army of the Potomac, which I knew 
to be buried in mud. The American papers of course 
deluded their readers by constant assurances that 
McClellan was about to move next week. It would 
seem, after all, that in new" countries the practice of 
going into winter quarters, which prevailed among 
sixteenth and seventeenth century generals, was 
founded on good reason ; but that as the land be- 
came better drained, and the roads were improved 
by civilization and populations, the necessity for in- 
action was diminished. Napoleon astonished Europe 
by some wonderful escapades in the field ; but even 



136 CANADA. 

in the Peninsula the British suffered greatly in winter 
movements. In the old French war, operations in 
Canada were usually over in August or early in 
September; but the Americans, in their bold and 
skilful campaign of 1775, commenced their invasion 
or dash late in the year — managed so well that they 
broke in almost simultaneously at Montreal and Que- 
bec, on the British, who had only one regular regi- 
ment in the Provinces, in November — and it was 
on the last day of the year that Montgomery and 
Arnold made their brilliant and unsuccessful attempt 
to carry the citadel by escalade. 

Again, in 1812, it was as late as October before 
the Americans opened their campaign on the Niagara 
frontier ; and it was about the middle of November 
when they directed their ill-managed and abortive 
demonstration against Montreal. They again moved 
in January, 1813, and several actions took place in 
the early months of the year, nor did the approach 
of winter drive the contending parties from the 
field ; and a good deal of sharp fighting took place 
in December. In the following year the Americans 
began the offensive at a later period, though the 
corps intended to operate against the Montreal dis- 
trict was in motion in the first week of March. Our 
defeat at Plattsburg occurred on September 11th. 
The Americans make much of it — with great jus- 
tice. They defeated the best regiments of an army 
which had proved itself, in face of the picked troops 
of Napoleon, the first in Europe. When winter is 
well established in these high latitudes, perhaps it is, 
under ordinary circumstances, more favorable to mil- 
itary operations than it is in lower latitudes, where 
tremendous rains alternate with heavy snow-sforms, 
which do not form permanent deposits over which to 
move men or guns. 

On the following day I dined with Mr. Chamber- 
Jain, of the " Montreal Gazette," Mr. Rose, Mr. 
Ryland, Major Penn, and a number of gentlemen 



SNOW-DRIFTS. 137 

connected with the Canadian press, at a famous old- 
fashioned English tavern, kept by an old-fashioned 
John Ball cook, who would have fainted outright at 
the sight of a vol-au-vent and died of an omelette 
glacee^ where we had much old-fashioned English 
talk. On our issuing into the outer w^orld there was 
a snow-fall going on, the like of which I, unaccus- 
tomed, had never seen before ; and my voyage out 
to Mr. Rose's was diversified by attempts of the sleigh- 
driver to get over boundary-walls and into gardens, 
till we came to a dead stop just as the fall cleared 
off a little, and permitted us to get a glimpse of the 
moon. But the moon gave no assistance, for its 
rays only lighted up great snow mounds and a uni- 
versal whiteness, and the road seemed as doubtful as 
ever. As I was deliberating what was best to be 
done, a sleigh-bell was heard jingling in the distance, 
and the vehicle gradually approached us. We hailed 
the occupant, and I heard a well-known voice in an- 
swer: it was that of Colonel Lysons, an inmate of 
the same hospitable abode as that I occupied. Our 
united efforts at last discovered the mansion. 

The snow-storm continued next day : the fall was 
so great that Lysons, who was bound to Quebec on 
duty connected with the Militia Bill, and started 
early, was compelled to return re infecta in the morn- 
ing. Towards the afternoon the storm ceased, and 
left a thick outer garment over the body of the coun- 
try. The younger people of the house considered the 
occasion favorable for snow-balling, and I was in- 
cluded in some diffusive arrangements, very unfavor- 
able to literary composition, for the spread of the 
white artillery, directed by willing hands and unre- 
lenting aim at short range. I dined with the artillery 
mess — went afterwards to a ball given by H. M.'s 
16th Regiment at the Donegana, which is the head- 
quarters of Secessiondom — and finished the evening 
by a visit to the house of Mr. Judah, who gave a 
dance which was attended by Lord F. Paulet and a 



138 CANADA. 

number of soldiers, and, above all, by a lovely Ameri- 
can, who created a strong current in favor of the 
Union, of which she was a stanch advocate. 

As already hinted, I have heard of complaints from 
officers of the Guards and* other regiments that the 
Canadians during the period in question did not treat 
them with the hospitality for which they were once 
celebrated. Of that point I am not well able to 
judge; but I must say, that during the whole period 
of my stay in Canada, I never was in any society in 
which I did not see British officers, and never knew 
of their having had reason to complain of neglect till 
lately. If there was any want of hospitable civility, 
I must think the officers were in some measure to 
blame for it ; for among those stationed any length 
of time in Canada, or who knew the country in for- 
mer years, I always heard unreserved praise of those 
Canadians who had the means of entertaining vis- 
itors. It must be remembered that there are few 
Canadians who are wealthy enough to give set din- 
ners, and that the reserve which guards the family of 
the Frenchman existed in the times from which his 
descendants in Canada take their traditions and man- 
ners. Many people in Montreal, well inclined to 
show every attention in their power to the officers 
quartered among them, were deterred by the very 
prestige of the Guards' social position from offering 
them ordinary civility ; and by degrees in many cases 
an estrangement grew up. 

I saw nothing to account for the discontent of 
officers who were quartered at Montreal, save and 
except the fact that they were on foreign service, that 
they were not in England or London among their 
friends, and that they did not like the people, — all 
grounds which they might unfortunately allege 
against any other part of the world in which the 
British army is forced to serve. The subject is only 
important, in so far as it exercises an influence over 
the relations of the two countries ; a common expres- 



MILITARY DISCONTENT. 139 

sion of dislike on the part of men who exercise a 
great influence among the most powerful classes in 
this country must increase any tendency to regard 
with indifference the possession of the great territory 
which it is my belief we should seek to attach to the 
Crown by every possible legitimate means, Professor 
Goldwin Smith and the political economists of his 
school notwithstanding. 

After a stay of some days in Montreal, I received 
intelligence which rendered it necessary for me to 
depart at once for the United States, and I returned 
to New York by Rouse's Point, travelling night and 
day. I had seen enough of Canada to inspire me 
with a real regard for the people, and a sincere inter- 
est in the fortunes of such a magnificent dependency 
of the Crown, and I resolved, as far as in me lay, to 
attract the attention of the home country to a region 
which offers so many advantages to her children, and 
promises one day to be the seat of flourishing com- 
munities, if not of a vast*and independent empire. 



140 CANADA. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Extent of Canada. — The Lakes. — Canadian Wealth. — Early History. 
Jacques Cartier. — English and French Colonists. — Colonial and Aca- 
dian Troubles. — La Salle. — Border Conflicts. — Early Expeditions. — 
Invasions from New England. — Louisburg and Ticonderoga. — The 
Colonial Insurrection. — Partition of Canada. — Progress of Upper Can- 
ada. — France and Canada. — The American Invasion. — AVinter Cam- 
paign. — New Orleans and Plattsburg. — Peace of Ghent. — Political 
Controversies. — Winter Communication. — Sentiments of Hon. Joseph 
Howe. — General View of Imperial and Colonial Relations. 

A VICTORY won not a century ago gi'atified the 
animosities of the American colonies, and added to 
the countries ruled by the Sovereign of Great Britain 
a tract of territory thrice the size of his kingdom. 
From Labrador to the western limit of Lake Superior, 
a line drawn east and west within the boundaries of 
Canada, is 1600 miles long ; but the breadth of the 
country from its Southern frontiers to the ill-defined 
boundary on the North, is but 225 miles. This vast 
region is divided into Upper and Lower Canada. 
The former lies between long. 40^ and 49° N., and 
lat. 74° and 117° W. The latter lies between 45° 
and 50° North and 57° and 80° W. The three hun- 
dred and forty thousand square miles thus bounded 
present every variety of scenery and of soil. The 
climate is mainly influenced by the relations of the 
land to the enormous inland seas and great rivers 
which occupy such a space in the map of British 
North America. From Lake Superior, which is 
larger than all Ireland, flows the mighty stream 
which feeds Lake Huron by the River St. Mary. 
Huron is nearly 250 miles long and 221 miles broad. 
From Lake Huron the river and lake of St. Clair lead 
the flood into Lake Erie, which is 280 miles long and 
63 miles broad. From lake Erie the current runs 



THE LAKES. 141 

with quickening pace, till it rushes in ceaseless flight 
into the fathomless depths of Niagara, and whirls 
onward to melt into the waters of Lake Ontario. 
The last and smallest of these seas, Ontario, is 180 
miles long and 50 miles broad. The St. Lawrence, 
winding through many islands, emerges from its east- 
ern extremity and commences its uninterrupted career 
of 700 miles to the Atlantic. The land of this north- 
ern contin'ent in fact reverses the part of Ocean, and 
enfolds sea after sea within its arms. The water 
blesses the land for its protection ; it yields an easy 
way to the progress of civilization ; transports the 
produce of the settler's labor to distant markets, and 
lays open to his enterprise the wide-spreading forests 
and plains which, but for them, would still be the her- 
itage of the Indian and of his prey. Among the great- 
est proofs of enterprise in the world are the canals by 
which the people living on the shores of the lakes have 
rendered navigation practicable from the sea to Lake 
Superior. The display of the natural and artificial 
products of the far-reaching lands watered by the giant 
St. Lawrence at the Great Exhibition of 1862, came 
to the eyes of most of us with a sort of shock. It was 
surprising indeed to behold such evidences of wealth 
given by a dependency which was associated in the 
popular mind with frost and snow, with Niagara, 
Labrador, and French insurrection — moose, mocca- 
sons, and Indians. There we saw an exuberance and 
excellence of growth in timber and in cereals — in 
all kinds of agricultural produce, combined with 
prodigious mineral riches. Sir William Logan, as- 
sisted by the zealous, skilful, and indefatigable staff 
of Canadian geologists, showed what a future Canada 
may expect when capital and population combine to 
disinter the treasures which now lie hid within its 
rocky ribs. 

According to Jesuit Hennepin, the name of Canada 
furnishes a proof of an ignorance and deficiei^ap- 
preciation of the true value of the country that^ill 



142 CANADA. 

mark the workings of the European mind in refer- 
ence to the resources of Canada. According to him, 
the woid Canada was derived from a corruption of 
the Spanish words Capo da Nada, or Cape of Noth- 
ing, which they gave to the scene of their early dis- 
coveries when, under a conviction of its utter barren- 
ness and inutility, they were about abandoning it in 
disgust. The derivation may be well doubted, but 
the implication may be true enough. The main- 
spring of Spanish, and indeed of all European en- 
terprise in those days, was the hope of gold, and 
although there is reason to know that the precious 
metal is associated with others scarcely less valuable 
in Canada, of course it was not found lying in heaps 
and blocks on the sea-shore, and therefore the Span- 
iards concluded that it did not exist. It has been 
conjectured, with greater appearance of probability, 
that Canada is a modification of the Spanish word sig- 
nifying " a passage ; " because the Spaniards thought 
they could find a passage to India through Canada ; 
as others, with greater reason, believe there may yet 
be found a permanent practicable way to the shores 
of the Pacific through its wide expanse of lake and 
mountain. 

The accounts of the first discovery of Canada, mea- 
gre as they are, possess a romantic interest vv^hich is 
never likely to assume any very precise or substantial 
form. Although Cabot, who discovered Labrador 
and Hudson's Bay, was the first person who sug- 
gested or projected the establishment of colonies or 
settlements in these newly found regions, and Eng- 
lish merchants actually established some small colo- 
nies there, it is to Jacques Cartier, of St. Malo, that 
the credit of the first real establishment of Europeans 
in Canada must be assigned. Cabot discovered the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence : it was Cartier who found that 
the Gulf was but the mouth of a vast river ; and 
who urged his little craft among its unknown dan- 
gers till he came to the site of Quebec. It was no 



EARLY HISTORY. 143 

ordinary man who, having accomplished thus much, 
pressed onwards till he reached Hochelaga, the site 
of Montreal. He was impelled by the love of gold 
and precious stones, and believed that here he had 
found them, but they were indeed only Lagenian 
mines. Cartier, and many another gallant sailor, 
found glittering mica and crystals on the shores of 
their new-found lands, which in their innocent faith 
they believed to be gold and diamonds, and so filled 
ship and were off to sea again. The failure of these 
early adventures cast Canada into disfavor with those 
who led the enterprise of the East. Whilst the Eng- 
lish merchants and navigators were, with uncertain 
steps, seeking some solid resting-place on the eastern 
shores of America below the St. Lawrence, Canada 
was left in the possession of the Indians — not a 
peaceable possession, because the great Tribes were 
as irreclaimably belligerent as the Highland Clans or 
the Irish Septs. It is curious to reflect on the fact, 
indeed, that little more than two hundred years ago 
the whole of the vast region between Massachusetts 
and Hudson's Bay was in the hands of the Red Man. 
But he was then yielding ground rapidl}^ before the 
imperious strangers who had seized his shore farther 
south. The merchants of Bristol and of London 
turned their attention to Virginia before the French 
of St. Malo had well established themselves on the 
shores of the St. Lawrence. Both English and French 
alike were encouraged and stimulated in these early 
efforts by the Crown. About the time that James 
the First was granting charters and framing corpora- 
tions for colonies in Virginia, Champlain was estab- 
lishing French settlements at Tadousac and Quebec, 
in Nouvelle France. The early dealings 'of English 
and French with the natives are discreditable to both 
nations; both fomented or availed themselves of 
dissensions among the Tribes, and when hostilities 
broke out, threw their weight on one side or the other. 
Whilst the New England Puritans were encouraging 
themselves in the work of destroying the Red Man 



144 CANADA. 

by quoting passages from the Old Testament, which 
clearly showed how they the chosen people of God 
were called upon to slay the Canaanite, Cham plain, 
with his Roman Catholic priests, was quite as busy 
in rooting out Iroquois in the name of Heaven and 
of the Church. Of the two invading races, indeed, 
the French were the least exclusive, for they neither 
burned nor banished Dissenters. So great was the 
liberality of France in those days, that Protestant and' 
Roman Catholic emigrants shared in the same en- 
terprise, and abode in the same settlements. But the 
Brethren of New Plymouth took a very limited view 
of Christian fraternization, and at the very outset the 
colonists of the Northern and of the Southern States 
were animated by principles so opposed that even in 
the grub state they bit and stung each other. 

English and French colonists were alike under- 
going the spasmodic influences of the jealousy and 
intrigue which usually preside over the birthplace of 
colonies, when the operations of the war which broke 
out between France and England in 1628, were ex- 
tended to those' distant regions. The growing power 
of England at sea enabled her to strike a tremendous 
blow at New France. Champlain, with all his gar- 
rison, was starved into capitulation by Sir David 
Kirke ; but on the .restoration of peace and of the 
colony to France, in 1633, he returned to Canada, 
where he died two yeais afterwards. Champlain, 
with all his faults, was undoubtedly a man note- 
worthy, politic, and valuable in his time and genera- 
tion, and his name will ever be associated with the 
early history of the continent. Priests and nuns and 
missionaries after his death swooped down on the 
Indians, who began to hate each other worse than 
ever they had done before, whilst at the same time 
they learned to entertain a savage dislike for the race 
which they had welcomed to their shores so cour- 
teously and gently. Thousands of Indians were 
indeed converted, as it was called, to Christianity ; 
but it was only that they might rage with greater 



LA SALLE. 145 

. cruelty and fierceness against their brethren. Mas- 
sacres of Christians and of converts by furious sav- 
ages fanned these unholy flames. Little is left of 
either the Indians or of their Christianity now. A 
common animosity to the aborigines brought about 
the first ''^ rapprocliment''' between the French and 
British Colonists. The New English and the New 
French first met in America to consider the propriety 
of an alliance against their Indian enemies, which 
should not be broken by war between the parent 
countries, but the status of the two offshoots of the 
great European rivals was very different. The 
French in Canada at one time displayed a wonder- 
ful amount of enterprise, energy, and perseverance 
in their dealings with the savages, which can only 
be appreciated by those who have studied their early 
records, but it contrasts strongly with the quiescence 
and political folly of their descendants. Their early 
explorations were characterized by a spirit worthy 
of the countrymen of Cartier. Among these, the 
voyage of La Salle from Niagara deserves to be 
mentioned, as indicative of the highest qualities of 
a traveller. In a little craft of some sixty tons, he 
ascended the rapid river above the Falls of Niagara, 
amidst ditticulties which we can but little understand, 
and gained the broad expanse of Lake Erie ; thence 
boldly steering westward, he came upon the narrow 
river or strait of Detroit, crossed the lucid waters of 
Lake St. Clair, and was at last rewarded by the 
grand discovery of Lake Huron. Still boldly pur- 
suing his course westward. La Salle at last came to 
Lake Michigan, whence in company with Father 
Hennepin, his Jesuit historian, he undertook the feat 
of penetrating to the head- waters of the Mississippi. 
Nor did he stop when he reached the mystic stream; 
he trusted himself to the mighty flood, and never 
turned round or bated breath till he floated out, 2000 
miles below, on the turbid waters of the Gulf of 
Mexico. Whilst the hierarchy of France were busy 



146 CANADA. 

founding bishoprics, building churches, and establish- 
ing seminaries, the English, distracted by internal 
convulsions, left their American colonies pretty much 
to themselves. France sent out governors, council- 
lors, and bishops to New France ; England dispatched 
her Puritans, adventurers, younger sons. Catholic 
cavaliers, and Nonconformists ; but the natives were 
sure to suffer, no matter in what form the colony 
was ruled, or of what Europeans it was composed. 
Terrible diseases, although known in Europe for two 
hundred years previously, according to contemporary 
writers, appeared suddenly, and without European 
communication, among the indigenes, and ravaged 
the miserable tribes, already decimated by intestine 
war and ruin. Christians were naturally held ac- 
countable for all the evil ; and for a large part indeed 
they were. 

Whilst James the Second was making a last stand 
for his Crown against the victorious Dutchman, La 
Salle, with a patent of Governor, was sailing from 
La Rochelle, for the dependency of Louisiana, which 
now completed the vast semicircle over which the 
King of France claimed authority, and which enclos- 
ing the British settlements in a belt from Newfound- 
land through the lakes, swept thence by the Ohio 
down to the Gulf of Mexico, far away to the terra 
incognita under the setting sun. The superior trad- 
ing resources of the Indians of the South, the 
favorable conditions for the expansion of trade pos- 
sessed by the British on the Hudson over the French 
who had to struggle with longer frost, and the wintry 
storms of the St. Lawrence, and the greater com- 
mercial enterprise of the English colonists, nullified 
that vast territorial superiority. The French gov- 
ernors thought, by displays of vigor and violence to- 
wards the natives, to alter the course of trade ; but 
they could not compete with their neighbors, and 
quaiTels and petty wars vexed the life of both 
colonial systems. In* 1690, M. de Frontenac launched 



INDIAN AND BORDER WARS. 147 

three little corps of invading savages, aided and led 
by French troops, against the British settlen:ients in 
the New England Colonies. Schenectady in New 
York, Salmon Falls in New Hampshire, Casco in 
Maine, were surprised and bm-ned, and the colonists 
were given to the sword and the scalping-knife. For 
a time the survivors of the massacre had something 
else to do besides persecuting each other to death for 
witchcraft or torturing their heretics. They set to 
work to avenge their slaughtered saints. Sir William 
Phipps, a native of Massachusetts, led his Puritan 
hosts to Port Royal in Nova Scotia, but was obliged 
to retreat ingloriously from an attempt against Mon- 
treal. His rival, De Frontenac, had no better fortune 
in a projected attack by land and sea against New 
York. The war which raged between the colonists 
-was terminated by the Peace of Ryswick ; but peace 
did not last long, and the declaration of war by 
Great Britain against France and Spain revived the 
bloody contests between the borderers. The British 
Government sent out Marlborough's veterans, and 
those sailors who had swept the seas of every enemy, 
to aid the colonists. An immense expedition, which 
seemed capable of destroying any trace of French 
rule in Canada, sailed from Boston in 1710, against 
Quebec, but failed miserably at sea and in the St. 
Lawrence ere it reached the city. The Peace of 
Utrecht, in 1713, brought about a cessation of hos- 
tilities, but not of jealousies, or of Indian wars and 
massacres. By that time the predominance of the 
white man was well established, and the faces of the 
Indians were turned steadily towards the setting 
sun, and their footsteps followed his course towards 
the forests of the west. Fort after fort encroached 
on their decreasing domain, and Englishman and 
Frenchman, each after his kind, sought to reproduce 
in the New World those features of the mother- 
country which he loved or admired or respected 
most. 



148 CANADA. 

In the period which elapsed between the Treaty of 
Utrecht and the declaration of war in 1745, both the 
Colonies and Canada prospered, but the increase of 
the former was to that of the latter as the increase 
of grain compared with that of moss. The people 
of Massachusetts, led by their colonial chief, Pep- 
perell, with contingents from Rhode Island, Vermont, 
and Connecticut, were joined by the British fleet 
under Warren, and set out on their darling project 
of reducing Louisburg, the great French arsenal and 
station at Cape Breton. On the 17th of August, 
1746, after a siege of two months, the place surren- 
dered with all its stores to the victorious Colonists. 
It was with difficulty that France could communicate 
with her menaced dependency, for the sea was nearly 
controlled by the British fleets, but her pride was 
aroused, and gi-eat armaments were prepared and 
dispatched to Canada. Afflavit Dens et hastes dissi- 
pantur. Two expeditions were nigh lost altogether 
on the waves. A third was destroyed by the fleet 
under Warren and Anson. The Peace of Rochelle 
put an end to the passionate efforts of France to 
retrieve her disasters, but the rivalries and excesses 
of the British and French fur-traders continued the 
strife between the Colonies and New France. The 
latter claiming the whole course of the Ohio, as it 
appears with some reason, forbade our traders to 
resort there. Forts were built to enable the French 
to exercise their jurisdiction and authority on ground 
which was regarded by the British Colonists as 
their own, and it is a remarkable fact, that George 
Washington's first military service was in command 
of an expedition of Virginians to capture the works 
erected by the French, and that he was compelled to 
lay down his arms by De Villiers, after a brief and 
inglorious — not to say very badly managed cam- 
paign. Although Great Britain made considerable 
efforts to aid the Colonists in their wars, she could 
not very well continue to do so when she was at 



BORDER CONFLICTS. 149 

peace with France, if her distant subjects chose to 
carry on hostilities on their own account. The 
King's Govern nfient gave advice to the Colonies to 
unite for self-defence, which led in 1754 to the assem- 
blage of a convention at Albany, at which Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York were repre- 
sented. The delegates drew up a plan for what was 
in effect a Federal Union, but the plan fell to the 
ground. The Home Government refused to adopt 
it, because of certain encroachments which it con- 
tained on the prerogatives of the Crown; and the 
colonial assemblies, which had already exhibited a 
sturdy self-reliance and independence worthy of 
attention at home, were equally dissatisfied with the 
proposal. But the seed had been sown — the idea 
of Federal Union, of self-taxation, of levying troops 
and regulating trade, was busy in men's minds. In 
the same year the Colonists were preparing for their 
great attack on Canada — an attack which was made, 
not because France was the enemy of England, but 
because Frenchmen in Canada were rivals of the 
American Colonists. 

The lines of invasion of French Canada marked 
out by the American subjects of the British Crown, 
were very much the same as those of the American 
rebels against the Crown, when some twenty odd 
years afterwards they prepared to invade British 
Canada. It is singular that the men who, under the 
authority of the Crown of England, or using at least 
the pretext of a state of war between the home coun- 
tries, waged war against the subjects of France in 
Canada, should have been foremost in the rebellion 
against England, and that, in the invasion of Canada, 
which was one of their first undertakings in pursu- 
ance of their rebellion, they should have found neither 
sympathy nor aid amongst the French Canadians, 
"whose allegiance had been so recently transferred to 
the King of England. More singular still is it that 



150 CANADA. 

France, which had received so many tremendous 
blows from these very colonists, and which suffered 
so much in her efforts to defend her Canadian depen- 
dencies from these inveterate assailants, should have 
been mainly instrumental in establishing their inde- 
pendence, and in leading their great revolution to a 
successful issue. The condition of the Scottish bor- 
ders in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries furnishes 
but a very poor parallel to the state of the debatable 
land which spread from the banks of the Ohio, by 
the great lakes, down to the Atlantic. Constant 
aggressions took place from one side or the other by 
trading parties, bands of Indians, or by armed parties 
with larger purposes of occupation or vengeance. 
"Whilst the English Colonies were enjoying the full 
fruit of the principles on which they had been 
founded, Canada, regarded as a mere dependency of 
the French Crown, vexed with the complicated and 
inconsistent form of government, was daily losing 
ground. The ill-paid governors were corrupt, or at 
all events exacting : the Intendants ground the prov- 
ince to powder to make the most of their office, and 
beneath each of these officers was an army of eccle- 
siastics, bent on appropriating, for that incarnation 
of the Church which appeared in their proper per- 
sons, the best of the land and the great tithes of all 
trade and commerce. Of the many encounters which 
took place on the borders, there are few authentic 
records : it is sufficient to know that neither the 
French nor the English succeeded at the period in 
effecting a permanent lodgment within the frontiers 
of the enemy. The Governors of Canada com- 
memorated their victory, " Rebellibus Novce Anglice 
Licolis" on medals and brasses, and Great Britain 
rewarded by various honors the colonial generals and 
governors who were supposed to have attained ad- 
vantages over their Canadian neighbors. In 1756 
war was again declared by Great Britain against 
France. Montcalm, availing himself of the utter 



LOUIS BURG AND TTCONDEROGA. 151 

imbecility of Lord Loudon, who commanded the 
British troops, speedily fell upon the important post 
of Oswego, on Lake Ontario, and captured it, with 
its garrison, guns, flotilla, and stores. He followed 
up that great success, in the following year, by the 
capture of Fort Edward, which surrendered, with its 
garason of 8000 men under Monroe, who were mas- 
sacred by the Indian auxiliaries. The officers who 
were sent from England to command the troops, and 
their continental allies at this period, must have in- 
spired the American continentals with a feeling of 
profound contempt ; but Lord Chatham, perceiving 
that the Colonists must be the mainstay of military 
operations, aroused the various New England settle- 
ments, by spirited despatches and promises of help, 
to make strenuous efforts against the enemy. Once 
more a British fleet under Admiral Boscawen, ap- 
peared upon the scene, and a force of 14,000 men, 
under Lord Amherst, was covered by its guns in the 
operations which led to the surrender of Louisburg 
on the 26th of July, 1756. This success was tar- 
nished by the defeat of a powerful army under Aber- 
crombie, in an ill-judged assault against Ticonderoga, 
where 16,000 men were beaten back by the French 
garrison, which numbered only 3000 ; but Kingston, 
on Lake Ontario, surrendered to the British- American 
troops, and Fort du Quesne — in the advance against 
which Braddock lost his life in the former war — was 
abandoned without a blow by its French garrison, 
who would be somewhat astounded, if, revisiting the 
glimpses of the moon, they could gaze upon the 
Pittsburg of the present day on the site of their 
ancient post. In July, 1759, three great expeditions 
were directed against Canada. The Ministry re- 
solved at any cost to trample under foot every trace 
of French dominion on the American continent, and 
in that resolution they were mainly sustained by the 
passion andanimosity of the New England Colonists. 
A powerful corps under Lord Amherst was directed 



152 CANADA. 

against Ticonderoga. Another corps, under Sir 
William Johnson, mainly composed of continentals 
and Indians, advanced against Fort Niagara, whilst 
an army commanded by General Wolfe, covered by 
the fleet, made an attack from the St. Lawrence 
against Quebec. Ticonderoga and Crown Point 
were abandoned by the French, and Fort Niagara 
was taken after an engagement with the enemy. 
How Wolfe fared all the world knows : an elaborate 
account of the great victory which gave Canada tp 
the Crown would be out of place in this volume, but 
elsewhere I have made a few remarks concerning the 
events of that memorable battle. On the 18th of 
September the British standard floated from the cita- 
del of Quebec. Ever since that time the country, 
handed over four years afterwards by the Treaty of 
Paris to the British, has remained under the pro- 
tection of England, acquiring year by year a greater 
measure of freedom and self-government, till, at this 
moment, it may be considered as attached to the 
Empire solely by what Mr. O'Connell called " the 
golden link of the Crown." The whole population 
of the country then ceded was under 70,000. The 
population of the British Colonies in America was at 
least twenty times as numerous. The American 
Colonists were at last gratified by a conquest which 
relieved them from a dangerous neighbor, who was 
backed by the power of France, and which opened 
to their enterprise not only the lakes and rivers of 
Canada, but Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, the St. 
Lawrence, and all the valuable fisheries of the sea- 
board. It was unfortunate that no attempt was 
made to define the exact boundary line between the 
Colonies and the new territory, although the Proc- 
lamation of 1763 no doubt was supposed at the 
time to be sufficiently accurate ; but we shall see 
hereafter that the neglect proved very damaging to 
the interests of Canada. The Americans, perhaps, 
would have resented any attempt to define very 



THE COLONIAL INSURRECTION". 153 

nicely the frontier between the new conquest of Eng- 
land and the territories of the colonists who had con- 
tributed to some extent in effecting it; and there 
were not many who foresaw the rupture which divided 
the mother-country and her dependencies forever. 

For fifteen years Canada, content with the preser- 
vation of her ecclesiastical establishments, of freedom 
of religion, and of the " Custom of Paris," seemed 
perfectly indifferent to the transfer of her allegiance 
from one king to another, the change, perhaps, being 
more in the language of her rulers, and the blazon 
of her standard, than in the mode of government. 
In fact the British military governors were singularly 
like the French military governors ; but it was felt 
at home, as soon as the difficulties with the colonies 
began, that Canada could not continue to be like a 
mere military division of a conquered country. In 
1774, the Quebec Act was passed, which created a 
council to aid in the administration of the province, 
guaranteed the freedom of the Roman Catholic 
Church, and abrogated the Royal Proclamation of 
1763. In lieu of the administration of a military 
proconsulate, there was established a settled govern- 
ment, with some show of a representative basis. 
The American Colonists were then upon the verge 
of the great rebellion, and as a proof of the spirit in 
which they acted, it may be remarked that the Con- 
tinental Congress made a most violent remonstrance 
against the toleration of Roman Catholicism in Can- 
ada, guaranteed by the Quebec Act. The very next 
year the rebellious Colonists captured Ticonderoga 
and Crown Point, and Montreal ; and had their 
enterprise against Quebec succeeded, Canada might 
have become included in the territory which eventu- 
ally became portion of the United States. So bent 
were the Colonists on including Canada in the scope 
of their great design, that in 1776, immediately after 
their unsuccessful invasion, Franklin, who was ono. 
of the main movers of Wolfe's expedition, and two 



154 CANADA. 

gentlemen, were sent by Congress to offer the Ca- 
nadians a free press and State rights, and the free 
exercise of the faith which but two years before they 
had so bitterly denounced the British Government 
for guaranteeing, if they would but join in the revolt 
against Great Britain. In the war which followed 
between the British and the American Colonists, 
Canada was made the base of operations against the 
colonies, which generally terminated in disasters, 
such as that of Burgoyne, though, in pitched battles, 
the British were almost invariably victorious. The 
habitans took little or no part in the contest, but on 
the Declaration of Independence, a number of Royal- 
ists emigrated from the States and settled in the 
country, in very much the same way as the Southern 
Americans are now taking refuge in Canada from the 
persecution of their Northern neighbors. The wish to 
give, in their new country, these devoted men some 
equivalent for that which they had lost, suggested a 
course which has been condemned by subsequent 
events. The Home Government resolved upon the 
unfortunate step of dividing the province into Upper 
and Lower Canada, with a governor-in-chief in 
Lower, and a lieutenant-governor in Upper Canada, 
so that the Royalists might not be quite swamped 
by the French element. The governors selected 
were often men without particular aptitude for ad- 
ministration, certainly destitute of the ability needed 
in dealing with the very peculiar state of society 
trade, and interests prevailing in the provinces. 

Although the legislative council and assembly of 
Upper Canada had equal privileges with that of 
Lower Canada, the condition of the people was very 
different, principally owing to the paucity of popu- 
lation. Governor Simcoe, to whom the care of Up- 
per Canada was first confided, ruled over a wilder- 
ness, in which a few clearings around the trading 
stations on the lakes and rivers, and some huts 
gathered about the military posts, were the sole ves- 



THE PARTITION OF CANADA. 155 

tiges of the white man and civilization. As the 
English colonists gained the upjDcr hand in the con- 
stant strife which raged during the latter period of 
the French occupation, the habitans of the remoter 
settlements had gradually withdrawn towards Lower 
Canada, and had concentrated in the neighborhood 
of the towns on the St. Lawrence, where they could 
find safety in case of danger, and transport should 
their friends be unable to protect them. It was not 
surprising that the whole French population flocked 
into the lower province; for under a foreign rule they 
gained confidence and ease by the contemplation of 
their numbers and the concentration of their masses. 
Although many American Royalists came into the 
lake country so abandoned, they were not equal in 
number to the population that fled. It required no 
small amount of courage and perseverance in Gov- 
ernor Simcoe to conduct the affairs of his little gov- 
ernment, from the site which his sagacity pointed out 
to him as the most favorable for the development of 
his province. The Red Man's wigwam still clung 
to the border of the British posts, and the few in- 
trepid men who ventured to fix their homes along the 
shore of the Upper St. Lawrence, found themselves 
amidst an uncongenial population of half-breeds and 
Indians, accustomed indeed to the chase, and to the 
rude barter which represented the only trade of those 
vast regions, but utterly averse to settled life and 
agricultural labor ; obnoxious also to handicraft-men, 
mechanics, and the followers of the peaceful, regular 
pursuits, which are the handmaidens of civilization. 
Under these circumstances the advance of Upper 
Canada, slow as it was for some years, is surprising, 
and the rapidity of her subsequent progress is certainly 
worthy of admiration. In 1793 the revenue of Upper 
Canada was less than 1000/. a year ; and although the 
machinery of carrying on government and law existed, 
it was but imperfectly, if at all, worked. In theory the 
English law prevailed, and one cannot but admit, if 



156 CANADA. 

we are to judge by its fruits, that it was far better 
calculated to promote the security and prosperity of 
the country, than the Custom of Paris, to which the 
French Canadians clung in virtue of the capitula- 
tion of Quebec. Even thus early the militia occupied 
the attention of the legislature, although they were 
obliged to do battle against the denizens of the forest, 
and to encourage the hunter by rewards for the de- 
struction of bears and wolves. The regulation of 
trade between the provinces and the United States — 
the establishment of ports of entry — tlie adjustment 
of land-titles, and other useful matters of the kind, 
were not neglected by the earliest Parliaments. Un- 
happily religious questions arose soon after the close 
of the last century in Lower Canada. The national 
feeling became associated with the ancient religion 
in opposition to the aims of the British Government 
and of the Protestant clergy. Whilst Dissenters and 
Presbyterians and other schismatics from the Church 
of England were allowed free scope in Upper Can- 
ada, the Government set itself to work to give to the 
Protestant Church in Lower Canada the prestige 
which belonged to the Catholic Church. The Cana- 
dians raised the cry, — Nos institutions ! notre langae I 
et nos lots ! 

When hostilities with America seemed imminent 
in 1807, the militia nevertheless responded to the call 
with enthusiasm in Lower Canada, and Acts were 
passed in Upper Canada for raising, training, and 
billeting the force in case of need. Although the 
language for which the Lower Canadians cried out 
was that of France Acadianized, the institutions and 
the laws in which they took pride belonged only to 
a France of the past. The Republic had placed be- 
tween Canada and France a barrier which the priest- 
hood declared to be impassable. What had they to 
do with the Goddess of Reason and a calendar with- 
out a saint? What had a people steeped in feudal- 
ism, or the Custom of Paris, to do with the Code 



THE WAR OF 1812-15. 157 

Napoleon ? Nevertheless the rulers of Canada sus- 
pected the habitans of treason, whilst the hahitans 
suspected the rulers of designs upon their faith ; and 
so it was that want of confidence, one of the most 
formidable impediments to the good understanding 
between governor and governed which can exist, took 
root and grew apace. The second war with the 
United States was at hand. The animosity of the 
Americans of the Southern and Middle States against 
England was much augmented by the discovery 
of a project of the Canadian Secretary, Ryland, to 
detach the New England States from the Union, and 
to annex them to Canada. The bitter feelings which 
the old New England Colonists had entertained to- 
wards their French neighbors had been mitigated by 
the influence of a common language and the con- 
genial religion and laws of the English rulers of 
Canada. Certain it is that the New England dele- 
gates opposed the war which was declared against 
Great Britain by the Government of Washington by 
every means in their power, though they were by no 
means complimentary to Canada, which they sup- 
posed it to be one of the objects of the war party in 
America to annex. On the declaration of war in 
1812, the Canadians, with the exception of the in- 
habitants of one parish, turned out with the greatest 
alacrity, and in considerable force, to defend their 
country. General Hall, the American Governor of 
Michigan, seized upon Sandwich in July in the same 
year; but he was soon very glad to cross over to 
Detroit again, where he very ingloriously capitulated 
soon aftewards to General Brock, with 2500 men 
and 33 pieces of cannon, thus surrendering the whole 
State of Michigan to Great Britain. 

The Americans, elated by their naval successes 
however, resolved to conquer Canada, although Mas- 
sachusetts, Connecticut, and New York opposed the 
war with so much determination, that it seemed very 
probable the Union would be broken up by the per- 



158 CANADA. 

sistence of the Southern statesmen in their policy. 
A corps under Colonel Van Rensellaer attacked the 
British and the Colonists under Brock at Queens- 
town, near Niagara, and although that gallant, in- 
trepid, and able officer fell at the head of the 49th 
regiment, the British, aided by Canadians and Indi- 
ans, captured or slew nearly the whole of the Amer- 
ican invading force, under the eyes of a large num- 
ber of American militia, at the other side of the 
river, who refused to cross to the aid of their coun- 
trymen. The Americans demanded an armistice, 
which was most injudiciously granted by General 
Sheaffe. The American General Dearborn, mean- 
time, with a force varying, it is said, from 8000 to 
10,000 men, invaded Lower Canada, but after some 
unsuccessful skirmishes retreated to Plattsburg. A 
few days afterwards the American Genera-l Smith 
made an attack on Fort Erie, which was character- 
ized by pusillanimity, and ended in disgraceful fail- 
ure. When the campaign opened in January, 1813, 
it was not auspicious for the invading Americans. 
General Winchester's force was defeated by Colonel 
Proctor, near Frenchtown ; Ogdensburg was taken ; 
but the Americans, nevertheless, continued the war 
with characteristic perseverance and foresight, and 
set to work to use the water communications which 
we had neglected, and thus gained an assured advan- 
tage. General Sheaffe was driven out of Toronto 
by an expedition which landed under the guns of a 
newly created American lake fleet, commanded by 
an experienced and brave sailor. Commodore Chan- 
cey. The capture of Fort George followed ; but an 
attempt to overrun Lower Canada ended in utter 
defeat, Prevost, however, being beaten back in an 
attack upon Sackett's Harbor, and Proctor being re- 
pulsed in an assault on Sanduskey, so as to moder- 
ate any undue exultation on the side of the British 
on account of their success. 

This war excited, littl ; attention in England, where 



EVACUATION OF DETROIT AND AMHERSTBUHG. 159 

men thought only of their gi'eat naval victories, in 
which their ships captured, sunk, or dispersed whole 
fleets of the enemy, or of the grand operations in 
Spain, where Wellington was worsting in succession 
the best generals of the Empire. All the strength 
of the United States was put forth in their war 
against Canada, and it is only astonishing that the 
Americans did so little with the means at their dis- 
posal. In July a British expedition, covered by two 
sloops of war, destroyed stores, barracks, and prop- 
erty at Plattsburg, Burlington, and Swanton, whilst 
the Americans burned the British stores at York. It 
must be remembered that the Americans had every 
facility in the command of the lakes, and in the com- 
mand of the waters. The connection between Lower 
and Upper Canada was carried on by rapid and dan- 
gerous rivers, and by lakes which were constantly 
patrolled by the Americans, the roads being simply 
tracks through a forest, or causeways of a most rudi- 
mentary character. For some time both sides con- 
tended for the supremacy of the Lakes. On the 31st 
of July the British, under Sir J. Yeo, captured two 
of Commodore Chancey's squadron, which was fur- 
ther reduced by the loss of two gun-boats, which 
capsized in trying to escape from the victorious Eng- 
lish. But Chancey repaired damages in Sackett's 
Harbor, and on the 28th of September attacked the 
British flotilla, which eventually retreated under the 
guns of Burlington Heights. For the time, therefore, 
the Americans were masters of Lake Ontario, and 
they used their advantages in capturing British stores 
and reinforcements. On the 10th of September the 
British lost the command of Lake Erie also. An 
American squadron of nine vessels under Perry, far 
superior in size, number of men, and in calibre of 
guns, defeated a British squadron of six vessels under 
Barclay. The result of this defeat was that the Brit- 
ish under Proctor had to evacuate Detroit and Am- 
herstburg, and fall back to open communication with 



160 CANADA. 

their base of supplies. On the river Thames the 
pursuit became so severe, that Proctor turned to bay, 
but he was overwhelmed by the Americans under 
Harrison, who numbered 3500, whilst the British did 
not exceed a third of that strength. Michigan was 
lost to us, and the only port retained by the British 
west of Burlington was Michilimacinac, which they 
had taken early in the war. Nothing less than the 
conquest of Lower Canada would now satisfy the 
Americans. A force of 12,000 men was assembled 
to operate against Montreal. On the 20th of Sep- 
tember, Colonel de Salaberry, a Canadian in com- 
mand of a post of militia, and a few Indians, checked 
the advance of the eneniy, and fell back to Chateau- 
gay, where in a most creditable and gallant action 
he defeated an American column under Hampton, 
which was intended to cooperate with an expedition 
down the St. Lawrence, against Montreal. Another 
portion of the force was defeated at Chrystler's Farm, 
with some loss, by a body of British regulars, Cana- 
dian militia, and Indians. The attack on Montreal 
was precipitately abandoned, and the Canadians, 
who had done so well, were sent back to their homes. 
But winter did not put an end to the war. The 
British determined to drive the enemy out of Canada, 
and the Americans retired before them. On the 10th 
of December the enemy abandoned and burned the 
town of Newark. On the 18th of December the 
British surprised Fort Niagara with all its garrison, 
and gave Lewiston and Manchester to the flames. 
Buffalo and Black Rock were captured and destroyed 
by the British under Riall, and the whole country- 
side was laid waste in retaliation for the burning of 
Newark. Sir George Prevost was able to meet the 
Canadian Parliament with pride, and to congratu- 
late it on the conduct of the provincial militia in the 
field, and the loyalty of the people. Before the com- 
ing of spring had loosed the lakes and rivers, the 
Americans returned to the attack on Canada, and in 



CHIPPEWA. — NEW ORLEANS. 161 

March, 1814, Macomb crossed Lake Champlain ; 
but a part of his force was repulsed in an attack on 
Lacolle, and he retired to Plattsburg. In May, Sir 
J. Yeo fitted out an expedition from Kingston, which 
sailed on the 4th of May, captured Oswego, and 
destroyed some military stores, but did not succeed 
in a similar attempt against Sackett's Harbor. On 
the 3d of July a strong force of Americans landed 
near Chippewa, and defeated a body of British, Ca- 
nadians, and Indians, of inferior numbers, under 
Eiall. A very bloody and determined contest ensued 
on the 2oth, near the same place, in which the Amer- 
icans made repeated efforts to break the British, but 
were repulsed, and finally retired to their camp, 
whence they retreated towards Fort Erie, destroying 
their baggage and stores. The British followed, and 
were beaten in a desperate attack to storm the fort. 
Whilst these small yet sanguinary actions were 
breaking out sporadically along the Canadian fron- 
tier, the Government at home made use of a part of 
the forces liberated by the peace with France, and 
resolved on giving the Americans a little diversion 
from their pursuit of glory and conquest in Canada. 
A British force under Ross defeated the American 
army at the Races of Bladen sburg, captured Wash- 
ington, and destroyed public buildings and property 
of all kinds. A demonstration against Baltimore 
did not succeed because the fleet could not cooper- 
ate, although the British troops routed the American 
covering army with the utmost ease, and at New 
Orleans our troops endured a humiliating repulse. 
The war did not languish in Canada. The British 
took Prairie du Chien in the west, and seized on all 
the country between the river Penobscot and New 
Brunswick. The most important part of the State 
of Maine thus fell into British possession, and a 
provisional government was established over it till 
the end of the war, when Maine was restored to the 
United States. To compensate for these successes, 



162 CANADA. 

the British flotilla was beaten by the Americans 
under McDonongh, and Sir George Prevost sus- 
tained a discreditable defeat at the hands of a very 
inferior force under General Macomb, on the 8th of 
September, at Plattsburgh. The Americans, how- 
ever, abandoned Fort Erie on the 5th of November, 
which was the last vestige of their great plans for the 
conquest of Canada. The Peace of Ghent put an 
end to a contest in which the United States would 
have soon found itself opposed to the whole power 
of Great Britain. The conditions of that Treaty 
were disastrous for Canada, as they shut her out 
from any seaport for several months of the year. In 
fact, Admiral Gam bier, Mr. Goulburn, and Mr. 
Adams, knew nothing at all about their business, 
and exercised neither diligence, research, nor caution, 
in examining the stipulations of the treaty. They 
accepted all the Amierican conditions and statements 
without inquiry or hesitation. They never bestowed 
a thought on the effect of such observations as " the 
high lands lying due north from the source of the 
River St. Croix, and the head of the Connecticut 
River not having been ascertained " ; " part of the 
boundary betv^een the two powers not having been 
surveyed," and the like, which many years after be- 
came essential and powerful arguments in the dis- 
cussion. In the war the Canadians had displayed 
courage and spirit, and the best American generals 
and statesmen were very speedily satisfied that they 
could effect very little in the way of conquest. They 
were but too glad to make peace. The war had not 
only damaged their resources, but threat(ined the 
very existence of the Union. The Northern delegates 
at the Hartford Convention had not merely objected 
to the proceediiigs of the Federal Government, but 
had entered upon the discussion of fundamental 
changes in the Constitution. In the Treaty of Ghent 
no concession was made on any of the points on 
which the declaration of war was made. In some 



POLITICAL CONTROVERSIES. 163 

respects the contest with the United States proved 
of decided benefit to Canada ; the money spent by 
the army enriched the country, and the incidents of 
the campaign tended to raise the reputation of the 
Canadians in England, and elevated the sentiment 
of self-respect among the people. Roads were made 
or projected for military purposes. Canals were dis- 
cussed and planned, and steam began to contend 
with currents and rapids. The revenue exceeded the 
expenditure, although nearly 27,000/. figured as an 
item for militia services the first year after the war. 

Had it not been for political and civil complica- 
tions, the progress of Canada would have been still 
more rapid ; but truth to say, progress encountered a 
considerable obstacle in the character of the people 
of Lower Canada. Probably not less than 35,000 
of the whole population were of French descent, 
strongly attached to their institutions, and therefore 
indisposed to change — influenced by traditions of a 
most conservative character, and by territorial ar- 
rangements which perpetuated the very essence of 
feudalism. Nevertheless, emigration was encouraged, 
free passages were given to some immigrants, food 
to others, one hundred acres of land to all. Banks 
were established ; but through all the extent of the 
upper province in 1817, there were not quite seven 
persons to the square mile. In some instances inju- 
dicious governors exercised their power to counteract 
the good disposition of the House of Parliament, and 
occasionally Parliament marred the excellent inten- 
tions of the representatives of the Crown. Impeach- 
ment of judges, imprisonment of journalists, ques- 
tions of privilege and the like arose, which interrupted 
the good feeling so necessary to the progress of colo- 
nial life. Constant fears of sedition, privy conspiracy, 
and rebellion, haunted the minds of governors, whilst 
the colonists and the habitans struggled for greater 
freedom of action. Although the Canadians had re- 
sisted the Americans with the greatest energy, they 



164 CANADA. 

were suspected of a desire to coalesce with, or to 
imitate the institutions of, the eneuiy. England at 
this time was agitated by aspirations for reform, and 
those who led the masses certainly justified the sus- 
picion with which their designs were regarded, by 
intemperance of language. Among the emigrants 
who flocked to Canada were men who were tinged 
deeply with the dye of dangerous democratic doc- 
trine, and notwithstanding the great gulf fixed be- 
tween the new-comers and the French hahitans^ it 
was feared that the two parties would unite in found- 
ing a government which could not be congenial to 
one or the other. When Lord Dalhousie came out 
in 1820, he found however a tolerably prosperous 
community. The dissensions respecting the civil 
list which had occurred for several years previously, 
inaugurated Lord Dalhousie's administration. The 
Assembly would not grant a permanent civil list, 
and took the extraordinary step of appointing an 
agent, who was a member of the British Parliament, 
to represent them in England. The impolicy of 
dividing the country into two provinces became more 
apparent as questions connected with revenue arose, 
and the discussion of these questions was embittered 
by deficient harvests and commercial distress. Now 
it was seen how injuriously the want of a port open 
all the year affected the interests of Canada, which 
for five or six months was denied all access to the 
sea, unless through the United States. The union 
of the two provinces was agitated, but the French 
population did not support the project. They be- 
lieved they would lose by amalgamation ; that they 
would forfeit their privileges, and be deprived of the 
advantages they enjoyed in the free import of Amer- 
ican produce. When it became known that the 
Government really had a project for the union of the 
provinces, Mr. Papineau, the Speaker of the Assem- 
bly, was dispatched to England with a petition 
against the proposed amalgamation, and it was de- 



NEGLECT OF CANADIAN INTERESTS. 165 

ferred for a time. Financial difficulties increased 
the ill-temper of the governed, and the harshness and 
resolution of the Government widened the breach 
between them. Squabbles and ill-blood sprang up 
with greater vehemence and animosity every day, 
and the seeds of the evil which came to maturity in 
1837, if not then first planted, were certainly invig- 
orated. The energies of the English, Scotch, and 
Irish emigrants who Hocked into the north were not 
to be repressed by these malign influences. The cit- 
izens of the old world pushed their way into Upper 
Canada, and finding lakes and rivers unfit for navi- 
gation, projected and carried out canals, and already 
grasped the probability of landing cargoes of Cana- 
dian wheat in Liverpool, from vessels loaded at 
Kingston and Montreal. 

The Imperial negotiators who renounced all the 
claims which they might have preferred in behalf of 
Canada on the peace of 1815, would probably have 
failed to secure for the province a port on the sea, 
although the British, who held so large a portion of 
the State of Maine, might have fairly sought some 
equivalent for it. At all events no strenuous effort 
was made to obtain such an advantas^e — nor was 
there any attempt on our part to ascertain what the 
precise boundaries were which the Americans claimed. 
We will just see how a British negotiator many 
years later consented to draw a line which placed 
the land communications of the mother-country 
with the provinces in war time at the mercy of an 
enemy for many miles of its course — Canadian 
interests and Imperial considerations being alike 
neglected — peace and war alike hampered, by want 
of foresight, prudence, or statesmanlike consideration. 
The increasing prosperity of Canada forced her to 
enter into closer relations with the United States, 
and to accede to arrangements with the Federal 
Government, which were of course regulated by Im- 
perial agency, and which were not always character- 



166 CANADA. 

ized by wisdom. But there was no alternative — at 
least not one which could then be adopted. The 
idea of a great confederation of the British Provinces, 
which would enable Canada to avail herself of the 
ports of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, if it pre- 
sented itself at all, was seen to be surrounded by- 
embarrassing obstacles and conflicting sentiments. 
The skill in the conception, and the energy displayed 
in the execution, of the canal system, which is the 
grandest and most extensive in the world, have made 
a practicable passage of more than 2000 miles from 
Anticosti up to Superior City; and works proposed 
or in progress by land and water attest the enter- 
prise and resolution with which the -Canadians con- 
tended against the only impediments in the way of 
their prosperity and greatness. The claims of Can- 
ada to Imperial aid against invasion are strengthened 
by concessions made by the Imperial agents, which 
clear away the path of the invaders. Although all 
the border States had their representatives and cham- 
pions, the voice of Canada was not heard in the de- 
liberations of the Commission. It was British terri- 
tory which was in debate — there are some who hold 
that Canada is alone called upon to defend it. Al- 
though the land may be invaded because it belongs 
to Great Britain, so far that Great Britain is actu- 
ally attacked by aggression upon it, Canada, in- 
volved in war because of its dependency on the 
British Crown, must bear the brunt of defending 
that which British diplomacy has rendered peculiarly 
liable to invasion. It is plain that those who insist 
on leaving Canada to defend herself, are advocating 
a policy which tends to separate Canada from the 
British Crown. The provinces are ruled by a Brit- 
ish viceroy, and are under the British flag, which 
would be the cause of an American attack. Catiada 
can do nothing to provoke hostility, but the English 
may be struck with effect as long as the provinces 
are ruled by the Crown, and contain a company of 
British soldiers. 



VALUE OF THE PROTECTION. 167 

It would be interesting to inquire whether the 
Canadians would be better off by themselves than 
they are at present, supposing always that the new 
theories are likely to prevail, in case of war. Not- 
withstanding the violence and exaggerated language 
of the American press, it is only right to conclude 
that Canada is far less liable to insult and aggres- 
sion under British protection than she would be 
without it. But that remark can only hold good in 
cases where the Americans do not feel more than 
usual irritatmn against Great Britain. The Cana- 
dians must feel that if they stood alone, pretexts 
would not long be wanting to treat the provinces as 
Texas was served. Canada has at present the 
power of England at her back, and the threat to 
deprive her of it by no means implies that she will 
be left to fight single-handed in the day of need. 
On the whole, balancing the chances of aggression 
on account of England against the chances of ag- 
gression if she stood alone, it is certain that Canada 
gains more than she loses by her present connection. 
The growth of great States along her frontier, and 
the excessive weakness of a water boundary in face 
of a maritime power, have caused us at home to 
insist on the engineering impossibility of defending 
the whole of the land and lake boundaries, but it by 
no means follows that the conquest of the country 
would be equally easy. With the full command of 
the sea and all its advantages — with commerce 
free — with a wonderful unanimity in the object of 
the war — with immense exaltation of spirit, and 
unparalleled expenditure of money, the Northern 
Americans have not yet subdued the Southern States, 
though they have more than tested the quality of 
their inner armor. Canada, with its narrow belt of 
inhabited territory, flanked by inland seas and vast 
rivers, offers no resemblance, it is true, to the South, 
but aided by Great Britain and her army, her fleet, 
and her purse, she might defy subjugation if she 



168 CANADA. 

could not escape invasion. It must be noted that 
the Americans frequently dwell on ideas for a long 
time ere they attempt to carry them out, but that 
generally they do make an effort to give practical 
effect to those theories which have taken hold of the 
popular mind. For many years before the annexa- 
tion of Texas and the war with Mexico took place, 
the people were prepared for both by the constant 
inculcation of their necessity. It is only justice to 
the Government of the UEited States to declare that 
their action has been generally restrictive, and that it 
has acted as a drag on the wheels of the popular 
chariot. There is in fact a great people standing 
between the fringe of the noisy democracy and the 
highlands of Federal authority, which breaks the 
force of the popular wave, and hears unmovedly the 
beatings of the turbulent press, and raging voices of 
the Cleons of the hour. Shame it is indeed to them 
that they so often permit the worth and sense and 
honor of the nation to be represented by the worth- 
less, foohsh, degraded scum that simmers in its noisy 
ebullitions on the surface of the social system. We 
cannot be sure how far the Americans are actuated 
by the feelings which find expression in the most 
scandalous public paper of New York, but we do 
know that the paper in question is largely read, and 
that its favorite topic, when there is a lack of 
subjects for abuse or menace, is the forthcoming 
doom of Canada, " when this weary war is over." 

In case of an invasion caused by any quarrel 
with Great Britain, or by anj^ policy for which the 
Canadians are not responsible, w^hat ought they to 
expect from us ? Everything but impossibilities. 
Among the greatest of impossibilities would be pro- 
tection of the whole of the frontier, with all the aid 
they could give us. The greatest would be the de- 
fence of their territories without all the aid they could 
afford. The Canadians tell us that in the hour of 
danger they will be ready, but as yet they have fallen 



MUTUAL DUTIES. 169 

short of that degree of preparation which we have 
a right to expect. If the blow falls at all it will 
come swift and strong, bat if they do their duty to 
us there can be no fear of our failing them in the 
time of peril. 

The Honorable Joseph Howe has vindicated the 
claims of the Colonies to the care, protection, and 
assistance of the mother-country. He has pointed 
out the defects in our system, from which the inevi- 
table necessity arises, that the colony shall become 
detached from the mother-country, to become its 
rival, or probably its enemy at some future stage of 
its existence. Though California — 3000 miles away 
— is represented, at Washington; "though Algeria 
is represented at Paris ; " the provinces of North 
America have no representation in London. 

" Our columns of gold," he exclaims, " and our 
pyramids of timber, may rise in your Crystal Pal- 
aces, but our statesmen in the great council of the 
empire never. Saxony or Wirtemberg are treated 
with a deference never accorded to Canada, though 
they are peopled by foreigners. The war of 1812- 
15 was neither sought nor provoked by the British 
Americans. It grew out of the continental wars, 
with which we certainly had as little to do. Whether 
a Bourbon or a Bonaparte sat upon the throne of 
France, was a matter of perfect indifference to us. 
We were pursuing our lawful avocations — clearing 
up our country, opening roads into the wilderness, 
bridging the streams, and organizing society as we 
best could, trading with our neighbors, and wishing 
them no harm. In the mean time British cruisers 
were visiting and searching American vessels on the 
sea. Then shots were fired, and, before we had 
time to recall our vessels engaged in foreign com- 
merce, or to make the slightest preparation for de- 
fence, our coasts were infested by American cruisers 
and privateers, and our whole frontier was in a 
blaze. 



170 CANADA. 

" You count the cost of war by the army and 
navy estimates, but who can ever count the cost of 
that war to us ? — a war, let it be borne in mind, 
into which we were precipitated without oar knowl- 
edge or consent. Let the coasts of England be in- 
vaded by powerful armies for three summers in suc- 
cession ; let the whole Channel from Falmouth to 
the Nore be menaced, let Southampton be taken and 
burnt, let the Southdowns be swept from the Hamp- 
shire hills, and the rich pastures of Devorishire supply 
fat beeves to the enemy encamped in the western 
counties, or marching on Manchester and London ; 
let the youth of England be drawn from profitable 
labor to defend these great centres of industry, the 
extremities of the island being given up to rapine 
and to plunder ; fancy the women of England living 
for three years with the sound of artillery occasion- 
ally in their ears, and the thoughts of something 
worse than death ever present to their imaginations ; 
fancy the children of England, with wonder and 
alarm on their pretty faces, asking for three years 
when their fathers would come home ; fancy, in fact, 
the wars of the Roses or the civil wars back again, 
and then you can understand what we suffered from 
1812 to 1815. Talk of the cost of war at a dis- 
tance ; let your country be made its theatre, and 
then you will understand how unfair is your mode 
of calculation when you charge us with the army 
estimates, and give us no credit for what we have 
done and suffered in your wars. 

" Though involved in the war of 1812 by no inter- 
est or fault of our own ; though our population was 
scattered, and our coasts and frontiers almost de- 
fenceless ; the moment it came, we prepared for 
combat without a murmur. I am just old enough 
to remember that war. The commerce of the Mari- 
time Provinces was not a twentieth part of what it 
is now, but what we had was almost annihilated. 
Our mariners, debarred from lawful trade, took to 



THE EFFECT OF WAR ON CANADA. 171 

privateering, and made reprisals on the enemy. Our 
Liverpool ' clippers ' fonght some gallant actions, 
and did some service in those days. The war expen- 
diture gave to Halifax an unhealthy excitement, but 
improvement was stopped in all other parts of the 
province; and, when peace came, the collapse was 
fearful even in that city. Ten years elapsed before 
it recovered from the derangement of industry, and 
the extravagant habits fostered by the war. 

" A few regiments were raised in the Maritime 
Provinces, their militia was organized, and some 
drafts from the interior were brought in to defend 
Halifax, whence the expeditions against the French 
Islands and the State of Maine were fitted out. Can- 
ada alone was invaded in force. 

" General Smith describes the conduct of the Cana- 
dian militia in the few but weighty words that be- 
come a sagacious military chieftain pronouncing a 
judgment on the facts of history. 

" ' In 1812 the Reptiblicans attacked Canada with 
two corps, amounting in the whole to 13,300 men. 
The British troops in the Province were but 4500, of 
which 3000 were in garrison at Quebec and Mont- 
real. But 1500 could be spared for the defence of 
Upper Canada. From the capture of Michilimaci- 
iiac, the first blow of the campaign, down to its 
close, the Canadian militia took their share in every 
military operation. French and English vied with 
each other in loyalty, steadiness, and discipline. 

" ' Of the force that captured Detroit, defended by 
2500 men, but a few hundreds were regular troops. 
Brock had but 1200 men to oppose 6300 on the 
Niagara frontier. Half his force were Canadian mi- 
litia, yet he confronted the enemy, and, in the gallant 
action in which he lost his life, left an imperishable 
record of the steady discipline with which Canadians 
can defend their country. 

" ' The invading army of yeomen sent to attack 
Montreal were as stoutly opposed by a single brigade 



172 CANADA. 

of British troops, aided by the militia. In the only 
action which took place the Canadians alone were 
engaged. The enemy was beaten back, and went 
into winter quarters. 

" ' In 1813, Canada was menaced by three separate 
corps. The Niagara district was for a time overrun, 
and York, the capital of the Upper Province, was 
taken and burnt. The handful of British troops that 
could be spared from England's European wars, 
were inadequate to its defence ; but in every struggle 
of the campaign, disastrous or triumphant, the Cana- 
dian militia had their share. The French fought 
with equal gallantry in the Lower Province. At 
Chateaugay, Colonel de Salaberry showed what 
could be done with those poor, undisciplined colo- 
nists, who, it is now the fashion to tell us, can only 
be made good for anything by withdrawing them 
from their farms and turning them into regular sol- 
diers. The American general had a force of 7000 
infantry, 10 field-pieces, and 250 cavalry. De Sala- 
berry disputed their passage into the country he loved, 
with 1000 bayonets, beat them back, and has left 
behind a record of more value in this argument 
than a dozen pamphlets or ill-natured speeches in 
parliament' 

" When the independence of the United States 
was established in 1783, they were left with one half 
of the continent, and you with the other. You had 
much accumulated wealth and an overflowing popu- 
lation. They were three millions of people, poor, in 
debt, with their country ravaged and their commerce 
disorganized. By the slightest effort of statesman- 
ship you could have planted your surplus population 
in your own provinces, and, in five years, the stream 
of emigration would have been flowing the right 
way. In twenty years the British and Republican 
forces would have been equalized. But you did 
nothing, or often worse than nothing. From 1784 
to 1841, we were ruled by little paternal despotisms 



IMPERIAL APATHY. 173 

established in this country. We could not change 
an officer, reduce a salary, or impose a duty, with- 
out the permission of Downing Street. For all that 
dreary period of sixty years, the Republicans gov- 
erned themselves, and you governed us. They had 
uniform duties and free trade with each other. We 
always had separate tariffs, and have them to this 
day. They controlled their foreign relations — you 
controlled ours. They had their ministers and con- 
suls all over the world, to open new markets, and 
secure commercial advantages. Your ministers and 
consuls knew little of British America, and rarely 
consulted its interests. Till the advent of Huskis- 
son, our commerce was cramped by all the vices of 
the old colonial system. The Republicans could 
open mines in any part of their country. Our mines 
were locked up, until seven years ago, by a close 
monopoly held in this country by the creditors of the 
Duke of York. How few of the hundreds of thou- 
sands of Englishmen, who gazed at Nova Scotia's 
marvellous column of coal in the Exhibition, this 
summer, but would have blushed had they known 
that for half a century the Nova Scotians could not 
dig a ton of their own coal without asking permis- 
sion of half a dozen English capitalists in the city of 
London. How few Englishmen now reflect, when 
riding over the rich and populous States of Illinois, 
Michigan, Missouri, and Arkansas, that had they not 
locked up their great west, and turned it into a hunt- 
ing-ground, which it is now, we might have had be- 
hind Canada, three or four magnificent provinces, 
enlivened by the industry of millions of British sub- 
jects, toasting the Queen's health on their holidays, 
and making the vexed question of the defence of our 
frontiers one of very easy solution. 

" When the Trent affair aroused the indignant 
feeling of the empire last autumn, we were — as we 
were in 1812 — utterly unprepared. The war again 
was none of our seeking. 



174 CANADA. 

" Nova Scotia and New Brunswick had thousands 
of vessels upon the sea, scattered all over the world. 
Canada had her thousand miles of frontier unpro- 
tected. Had war come, we knew that our money- 
losses would have been fearful, and the scenes upon 
our sea-coasts and our frontiers, sternly painted as 
they must occur, without any stretch of the imagina- 
tion, might well bid the ' boldest hold his breath for 
a time.' But, did a single man in all those noble 
provinces falter ? No ! Every man, ay, every woman 
accepted the necessity, and prepared for war. 

" Again it was a question of honor, and not of 
interest. In a week we could have arranged, by 
negotiation, for peace with the United States, and 
have kept out of the quarrel. But who thought of 
such a thing ? Your homesteads were safe ; ours in 
peril. A British — not a colonial ship — had been 
boarded ; but what then ? The old flag that had 
floated over our fathers' heads, and droops over their 
graves, had been insulted ; and our British blood was 
stirred — without our ever thinking of our pockets. 
The spirit and unanimity of the provinces, no less 
than tlie fine troops and war material shipped from 
this country, worked like a charm at Washington. 
President Lincoln, like Governor Fairfield, saw 
clearly that he was to be confronted not only by the 
finest soldiers in the world, but by a united and high- 
spirited population. The eff'ect was sedative; the 
captives were given up. And the provincials — as 
is their habit when there is no danger to confront — 
returned to their peaceful avocations." 

It may be necessary to make some allowance for 
the tinge of colonial patriotism in this passage, but 
after all the Hon. J. Howe is a transplanted English- 
man. He speaks with the voice of some millions of 
people, and we must listen to it, or be prepared for a 
good deal of lukewarmness or " disloyalty." I have 
avoided any reference to the disputes which broke 
out into rebellion in 1837, because no useful end 



THE FUTURE. 175 

would be gained by an account of an unfortunate 
schism which was produced by want of judgment on 
the part of the Government at home, and by the ex- 
treme fanaticism of a party in the province. But the 
fanaticism has in no small degree been justified by 
what has since taken place. When " rebels " are 
pardoned, it may be a proof that the government 
which pardons is strong and generous. When " reb- 
els " are not only restored to civic rights, but are 
invested with office, it is almost a demonstration that 
the government which permits them to exercise im- 
portant functions under it, was in error in the contest 
which drove these men to resistance. The rebellion 
in Canada had, however, nothing to do with the great 
question we are now discussing. We are approach- 
ing the larger subject, which is opened by the con- 
sideration of the arguments which are used by Im- 
perialists and Colonists in their controversy respecting 
the magnitude and relation of the empire and the 
colony in war. 

It becomes of high practical value to consider what 
Canada can do, and what Canada has done in the 
direction of self-defence, should she be threatened 
with war, either from imperial or colonial causes. 
It can be no satisfaction to Canada to become a fief 
of the new Federal quasi - republic because Great 
Britain failed in her duty ; and all the references to 
the patriotism and exertions of valor of Canadians 
in past times, would reflect all the greater discredit 
on them now, when they enjoy rights and privileges 
unknown to their hardy ancestors. Let us first see 
what her resources and defensive powers are, and 
then cast a glance at what Canada and the British 
Provinces in North America have got to defend. 
The only military force Canada can employ is the 
militia. Her present proud position should induce 
the people of Canada to make every effort to pre- 
serve the conditions under which they enjoy so much 



176 CANADA. 

liberty, happiness, and prosperity ; but she has in the 
future a heritage of priceless value, which she holds 
in trust for the gregtt nation that must yet sit en- 
throned on the Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and rule 
from Labrador to Columbia 



THE MILITIA. 177 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Militia. — American Intentions. — Instability of the Volunteer Princi- 
ple. — The Drilling of Militia. — Tiie Commission of 1862. — The Duke 
of Newcastle's Views. — Militia Schemes. — Volunteer Force. — Apathy 
of the French Canadians. — The First Summons. 

In a country situated as Canada is, without well- 
defined obligations as regards the sovereign power, 
there can be but two kinds of military force available 
for defence — a militia and an organization of volun- 
teers. The first is essentially the proper constitu- 
tional force on which Canada must mainly rely in 
case of invasion. The second, notwithstanding its 
enormous importance and value, is but accidental. 
Unless Canada assumed towards us the relations of 
a protected state, like India, and raised an army ofii- 
cered by the British, such as was that of Oude, or 
as that, to a certain extent, of some states at the 
present day, her volunteers could have no fixed and 
adequate value in a general scheme of defence. The 
Canadian militia must constitute the chief strength 
of Canada in operations on her territory. It would 
be impossible for Great Britain to do more than pro- 
vide officers, money, arms, artillery, and ammunition 
— perhaps the head and backbone of the force which 
would be needed for a large system of campaigns. 
The only enemy Canada has to fear is the Northern 
Republic. I am quite willing to do every justice to 
the moderation of Mr. Seward, and to the pacific 
policy of Mr. Lincoln, but it cannot be disputed that 
the strength of the central Government will be much 
diminished on the cessation of the present conflict, 
and that whatever way it ends the Cabinet of Wash- 
ington will be little able to oppose the passions of 
the people in the crisis which peace, whether it be 



178 CANADA. 

one of humiliation or of triumph, will bring with it. 
Passion, the passion wrought of pride, love of do- 
minion, national feeling, and the like, is far stronger 
than the silken bond of commerce. There is danger 
of war with Great Britain as soon as this war in 
America is over ; and the question is, how far Canada 
will be able to aid herself? Because, if she does not 
contribute largely to her own defence, it seems cer- 
tain that British statesmen will not strive very stren- 
uously to avert her doom. At the moment I write 
there is not, in a state of organized efficiency, one 
regiment of militia in the length, which is great, and 
the breadth, which is small, of Canada. Party vio- 
lence has set at nought all warnings and ail solicita- 
tions. The Canadians appear to rely on the tradi- 
tions of the past, and on the result of the small 
campaigns in the war with America, without any 
appreciation of the vast changes which have taken 
place since. Northern Americans, reaching their 
boundaries with pain and many a toilsome march, 
filtered small corps upon their soil — far inferior in 
numbers and equipment to those which now repre- 
sent the quota of the smallest State in the Union. In 
my letters from America I called attention to the 
significant fact that the northernmost point of the 
territory claimed by the Southern Confederacy was 
within 120 miles of the lake which forms the southern 
boundary of Canada. It may not be likely that 
the Confederacy will ever make good its claim to 
Western Virginia, and fix its standard in undisturbed 
supremacy at Wheeling, but it is nevertheless true 
that a strong passionate instinct urges the people of 
the North to consolidate the States of the West and 
those of the East by the absorption of Canada, which, 
with its lakes and its St. Lawrence, would be ample 
recompense for the loss of the South ; and, with the 
South in the Union, would be the consummation of 
the dream of empire in which Americans wide-awake 
pass their busy restless lives. The Americans are 



MILITARY RESOURCES OF CANADA. 179 

well aware of the vast advantage of striking a sud- 
den blow. The whole subject of Canadian invasion 
lies developed in well-considered papers in the bureau- 
drawers of Washington. At the time of the Trent 
affair I was assured by an officer high in rank in the 
Government that General Win field Scott had come 
back from France solely to give the State the benefit 
of his counsels and experience in conducting an 
invasion of Canada; and I cannot think it doubtful 
that the Federal Government would, in four or five 
weeks after a declaration of war with England, be 
prepared to pour 120,000 or 150,000 men across the 
British frontier. What has Canada done to meet 
the danger ? In May, 1862, the Honorable John 
Macdonald proposed that a minimum of 30,000 men 
or a maximum of 50,000 men should be enrolled and 
drilled for one month every year for three or for five 
years, but it was considered that Canada could not 
spare so large a number of men from the pursuits of 
trade, and above all of agriculture, during the open 
season w^hen drill would be practicable. The meas- 
ure was rejected. Mr. Sandfield Macdonald, after 
the failure of this proposal, introduced and carried a 
measure which gave the Government a permissive 
power to call out the unmarried militiamen for sLx 
days' drill in every year, and which provided that 
militia officers might be attached to the regular regi- 
ments serving in Canada for two months every year, 
in order to learn their duties. By the fundamental 
law of Canada the Government has the power of 
calling out in time of war, first, all eligible unmarried 
men between 18 and 45 years of age; secondly, 
married men between 18 and 45 ; and finally, those 
males fit to carry arms between 45 and 60 years of 
age. Under these laws Canada should have a force 
of 470,000 men available for service, and of these 
there are actually on the muster-rolls of the militia 
197,000 unmarried men between 18 and 31 years of 
age, whose service would be compulsory in case of 



180 CANADA. 

need. The Canadian Parliament voted half a million 
of dollars in each of the years 1863 and 1864 for 
military purposes, but the greater proportion of these 
sums was expended on the volunteers and on the 
staff of the militia. There has been no adequate 
return for the heavy drain such a sum causes on the 
Provincial exchequer. The best commentary on the 
voluntary system in militia drills is to be found in 
the fact that less than 10,000 men have been in 
attendance on them. 

With the experience we have had of the unstable 
character of volunteer forces in the field, it is not 
prudent for Canada to rely on her volunteers so much 
as she does. They have within their very body the 
seeds of dissolution. Some corps can decree their 
disbandment at two months', others at six months' 
notice — in other words, they may melt away at the 
very crisis of the war. Does American volunteering 
teach us nothing? In all human probability the 
South would have been struck to the earth at the first 
battle of Bull Run, if the Pennsylvania volunteers 
had not presented to the world the extraordinary 
and disgraceful spectacle of whole battalions under 
arms marching off from the field, as their unfortunate 
General McDowell expressed it, " to the sound of the 
enemy's guns." That was no isolated case. The 
desertion, at the same time, of other volunteer bat- 
talions under the equally unfortunate General Pat- 
terson in the Shenandoah Valley, left him unable to 
prevent the Confederate General Johnston marching 
with all his men to the aid of Beauregard. Over 
and over again the Federal leaders have been 
paralyzed by similar defections, and it was not till 
they became strong enough to hold the volunteers by 
force, as Meade did before he made his attempt 
against Richmond, that the evil was cured. Had 
the Federals gained Bull Run, they were ready to 
have marched on Richmond at once — they would 
have found the city defenceless, and the South dis- 



PROPORTION OF URBAN AND RURAL MILITIA. 181 

organized. Such a proof of Federal power as a de- 
cisive victory would, I believe, from what I saw in 
the South, have crushed the Secession party, and 
have strengthened the adherents of the Union, who 
were then numerous in many of the States. It might 
not have stopped the civil war, but it would have 
certainly given the most enormous preponderance to 
the North. The defeat mainly caused by McDowell's 
weakness in men, and the reinforcements received 
by the enemy in consequence of Patterson's inability 
to hinder their arrival, which was caused by the 
wholesale disbandment of volunteers, gave such an 
impetus to the Confederates, that their principle was 
carried triumphantly over the States, and crushed all 
opp.osition. We have seen what that defeat has 
cost the Federals since. In Canada the volunteers 
belong almost exclusively to the urban population — 
only a fifth come from rural districts ; and as the 
towns in Canada are very small, it is plain that the 
volunteer system would operate very injuriously on 
the trade of the cities, and would in all likelihood 
break down, without any imputation on the courage 
and patriotism of the townsmen. It is, of course, 
beyond the power of Canada to cope with the people 
of the United States single-handed, but the agencies 
which England could bring to bear against the enemy 
on the American seaboard, and on all the seas fur- 
rowed by her ships, would damp the ardor which 
the Northerners would exhibit at the first onslaught. 
It would be, no doubt, a very deplorable and a very 
disgraceful contest, but Great Britain would not be 
responsible for the beginning of hostilities. 

Just in proportion to the celerity and magnitude 
of their first successes, would be the efforts of the 
Americans to secure their conquest. It is far easier 
to repel than to expel. A handful of militia, ill- 
drilled, supported by a similar force of volunteers of 
similar inefficiency, could offer no resistance to the 
warms of invaders, and would but increase the 



182 CANADA. 

stress to which the little army of Queen's troops 
in garrison here and there would be subjected at the 
outbreak of war. To all argunient and entreaty, to 
insinuations and menace, Canada opposes the grand 
simplicity of her non possumus. She is burdened 
with debt, and even without any expenditure for the 
militia her outlay is considerably more than her 
income. A party in Canada called for a regular 
agreement with the Government at home to regulate 
the amount to be paid by Canada, and the troops to 
be furnished by her, as a part of the British Empire. 
These troops were to consist of militia of the first 
class, to be drilled by detachments in each succeed- 
ing year, till the whole number, whether it were 
50,000 or 100,000, should be properly disciplined. 
It was proposed by some advocates of this scheme 
that each body of militia should be called out for 
six months ; and that when that period expired the 
men should be entitled to immunity from further 
drills till war broke out, when they would become 
liable for ten years' service, after which they would 
go into a reserve only to be used in great emer- 
gencies. 

Many modes of raising, maintaining, and drilling 
this force have been suggested ; but as the principle 
was not adopted they are scarcely worth discussing. 
Drills for short periods are certainly of little or no 
avail ; and if money cannot be borrowed to put 
100,000 men in a state of readiness, the organization 
of 50,000 men to be drilled for three months in each 
year in bodies of 12,000 or 15,000 does not seem at 
all unreasonable. The rate of wages in Canada is 
very high, and the lowest estimate for the support, 
pay, and clothing of a militiaman for six months 
comes to about 20/. per man. It is, therefore, a sim- 
ple sum in multiplication to arrive at the ultimate 
figure of Canadian possumus in regard to the paying 
power of the Provinces. It is not true that if one 
man can be kept for 20Z. for six months two men 



RELATIONS OF CANADA TO GREAT BRITAIN. 183 

can be kept for the same sum for three months. 
The levy of 50,000 militiamen for six months would 
cost Canada, if she were alone, one million sterling. 
Mr. Cartwright has pointed out that Canada could 
discipline 100,000 militia, with half a year's instruc- 
tion each, for as much as would support a standing 
army of 2000 men for the same period. We may 
be very angry with the Canadians for their happy 
security. It is not so very long ago since the 
Duke's letters to Sir John Burgoyne startled us out 
of a similar insouciance. We may feel that the 
sudden development of the United States has placed 
us in a very doubtful military position. It is not so 
easy to shake off the obligations incurred by conquest 
and by emigration under the flag of Great Britain. 
In the face of very frigid warnings from the press, 
and very lukewarm enunciations of policy from her 
best friends, Canada had some reason to fear that 
there is a secret desire " to let her slide," and that 
nothing would please England so much as a happy 
chance which placed the Provinces beyond our care 
without humiliation or war. 

The duty of Canadians to their own country is 
very plain indeed if the people of England refuse to 
give them distinct guarantees that under certain con- 
ditions they will give them the whole aid of money, 
men, and ships that is required ; but these guaran- 
tees are implied in the very fact of suzerainty of the 
Crown. It must, however, be made known — if it be 
not plain to every Englishman — that the abandon- 
ment of Canada implies a surrender of British Colum- 
bia, of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Ed- 
ward's, Newfoundland, if not also the West India 
Islands. Many bitter words written and spoken here 
rankle in the breasts of the Canadians, and I have 
quoted the words in which a Canadian statesman has 
placed before Englishmen the terrible consequences 
which Canada may suffer from war, because she is 
a part of the British Empire, engaged in a quarrel 



184 CANADA. 

on imperial grounds with the Government of the 
United States. We do undoubtedly owe something 
to Canada, from the bare fact that for many years 
she resisted temptation, and remained under our flag 
unmoved by the blandishments and threats of the 
United States. In my poor judgment the abandon- 
ment of Canada would be the most signal triumph 
of the principle of democracy, and the most pregnant 
sign of the decadence of the British Empire which 
could be desired by our enemies. No matter by 
what sophistry or by what expediency justified, the 
truth would crop out through the fact itself that we 
were retiring as the Romans did from Britain, Gaul, 
and Dacia, but that the retreat would be made in the 
face of united and civilized enemies, and that the 
sound of our recall would animate every nation in 
the world to come forth and despoil us. 

As yet there is no reason for such a pusillanimous 
policy. 

The Commission of 1862 laid it down as their 
opinion that an active force of 50,000, with a reserve 
of the same number, would be required for Canada ; 
but as the bill founded on their report did not become 
law, the Canadian Government had no power to 
borrow arms from the Home Government for the 
whole number, as would have been the case had they 
passed the bill. Lord Monck, however, procured 
from the Home Government a considerable augmen- 
tation of the supplies in store of artillery, small arms, 
ammunition, and accoutrements. But the rejection 
of the Mihtia Bill of 1862 filled the Home Govern- 
ment with apprehension. The Duke of Newcastle, 
on the 20th of August of that year, wrote as fol- 
lows : — 

" If I urge upon you the importance of speedily re- 
suming measures for some better military organiza- 
tion of the inhabitants of Canada than that which 
now exists, it must not be supposed that Her Maj- 
esty's Government is influenced by any particular 



THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE'S VIEWS. 185 

apprehension of an attack on the Colony at the 
present moment, but undoubtedly the necessity for 
preparation which has from time to time been urged 
by successive Secretaries of State is greatly increased 
by the presence, for the first time on the American 
Continent, of a large standing army, and the unset- 
tled condition of the neighboring States. Moreover, 
the growing importance of the Colony, and its attach- 
ment to free institutions, make it every day more 
essential that it should possess in itself that without 
which no free institutions can be secure — adequate 
means of self-defence. The adequacy of those means 
is materially influenced by the peculiar position of 
the country. Its extent of frontier is such that it can 
be safe only when its population capable of bearing 
arms is ready and competent to fight. That the 
populatid^i is ready, no one will venture to doubt; 
that it cannot be competent, is no less certain, until 
it has received that organization, and acquired that 
habit of discipline which constitute the difference 
between a trained force and an armed mob. The 
drill required in the regular army, or even in the best 
volunteer battalion, is not necessary, nor would it 
be possible, in a country like Canada, for so large a 
body of men as ought to be prepared for any emer- 
gency ; but the Government should be able to avail 
itself of the services of the strong and healthy por- 
tion of the male adult population at short notice, if 
the dangers of invasion by an already organized army 
are to be provided against. 

" We have the opinions of the best military au- 
thorities, that no body of troops which England could 
send would be able to make Canada safe without the 
efficient aid of the Canadian people. Not oijly is it 
impossible to send sufficient troops, but if there were 
four times the numbers which we are now main- 
taining in British North America, they could not 
secure the whole of the frontier. The main depend- 
ence of such a country must be upon its own people. 



186 CANADA. 

The irregular forces which can be formed from the 
population, know the passes of the woods, are well 
acquainted with the country, its roads, its rivers, 
its defiles ; and for defensive warfare (for aggression 
they will never be wanted), would be far more 
available than regular soldiers. 

" It is not therefore the unwillingness, or the in- 
ability of Her Majesty's Government to furnish suffi- 
cient troops, but the uselessness of such troops with- 
out an adequate militia force, that I wish to impress 
upon you. 

" In your despatch of the 17th May last, you in- 
formed me that there were then 14,760 volunteers 
enrolled, besides others who had been more or less 
drilled. It is far, indeed, from my intention to dis- 
credit either the zeal or the efficiency of these volun- 
teers, who have, I hope, gi-eatly increased ki number 
since the date of your despatch ; but they constitute 
a force which cannot suffice for Canada in the event 
of war. They might form an admirable small con- 
tingent ; but what would be required would be a 
large army. They might form a force stronger than 
is necessary in time of peace to secure internal tran- 
quillity, but would be inadequate to repel external 
attack in time of war. Past experience shows that 
no reasonable amount of encouragement can raise the 
number of volunteers to the required extent. 

" It appears to me that the smallest number of men 
partially drilled which it would be essential to pro- 
vide within a given time, is 50,000. The remainder 
of the militia would of course be liable to be called 
upon in an emergency. Perhaps the best course 
would be, to drill every year one or more companies 
of each battalion of the sedentary militia. In this 
manner the training of a large number of men might 
be effected, and all companies so drilled should, once 
at least in two years, if not in each year, be exercised 
in battahon drill, so as to keep up their training. 

" I put forv/ard these suggestions for the considera- 



THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE'S VIEWS. 187 

Hon of the Canadian Government and Parliament, 



but Her Majesty's Government have no desire to 
dictate as to details, or to interfere with the internal 
government of the Colony. Their only object is so 
to assist and guide its action in the matter of the 
militia as to make that force efficient at the least 
possible cost to the Province and to the mother- 
country. 

" The Canadian Government will doubtless be 
fully alive to the important fact that a well-organized 
system of militia will contribute much towards sus- 
taining the high position with reference to pecuniary 
credit, which, in spite of its large debt, and its defi- 
cient revenue for the past few years, the Colony has 
hitherto held in the money markets of Europe. A 
country which, however unjustly, is suspected of 
inability or indisposition to provide for its own de- 
fence, does not, in the present circumstances of 
America, offer a tempting field for investment in pub- 
lic funds or the outlay of private capital. Men ques- 
tion the stable condition of affairs in a land which is 
not competent to protect itself. 

" It may, no doubt, be argued on the other hand, 
that the increased chars^e of a militia would diminish 
rather than enlarge the credit of the Colony. * I am 
convinced that such would not be the case, if steps 
were taken for securing a basis of taxation sounder 
in itself than the almost exclusive reliance on cus- 
toms duties. It is my belief that a step in this di- 
rection would not only supply funds for the militia, 
but would remove all apprehension which exists as 
to the resources of the Colony. 

" Whatever other steps may be taken for the im- 
proved organization of the militia, it appears to Her 
Majesty's Government to be of essential importance 
that its administration, and the supply of funds for 
its support, should be exempt from the disturbing 
action of ordinary politics. Unless this be done there 
can be no confidence that, in the appointment of 



188 CANADA. 

officers, and in other matters of a purely military 
character, no other object than the efficiency of the 
force is kept in view. Were it not that it mighl 
fairly be considered too great an interference with 
the privileges of the representatives of the people, ] 
should be inclined to suggest that the charge for the 
militia, or a certain fixed portion of it, should be 
defrayed from the consolidated fund of Canada, or 
voted for a period of three or five years. 

" It has further occurred to me, that the whole of 
the British Provinces on the continent of North Amer- 
ica have, in this matter of defence, common interests 
and comm^on duties. Is it impossible that, with the 
free consent of each of these Colonies, one uniform 
system of militia training and organization should be 
introduced into all of them ? The numbers of men 
to be raised and trained in each would have to be 
fixed, and the expenses of the whole would be de- 
frayed from a common fund, contributed in fair pro- 
portion by each of the Colonies. If the Governor- 
General of Canada were Commander-in-Chief of the 
whole, the Lieutenant-Governors of the other Colonies 
would act as Generals of Division under him ; but it 
would be essential that an Adjutant- General of the 
whole force, approved by Her Majesty's Government, 
should move to and fro, as occasion might require, so 
as to give uniformity to the training of the whole, 
and cohesion to the force itself. 

" As such a scheme would affect more than one 
Colony, it must, of course, emanate from the Secre- 
tary of State, but Her Majesty's Government would 
not entertain it unless they were convinced that it 
would be acceptable both to the people of Canada 
and to the other Colonies ; and they desire to know, 
in the first instance, in what light any such plan 
would be viewed by the members of your Executive 
Council. I understand that the Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernors of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, availing 
themselves of the leave of absence lately accorded 



THE MILITIA SCHEME. 189 

to them, intend to meet you in Quebec in the course 
of the ensuing month. This visit will afford yon a 
good opportunity for consulting them upon this im- 
portant question. 

" The political union of the North American 
Colonies has often been discussed. The merits of 
that measure, and the difficulties in the way of its 
accomplishment, have been well considered ; but 
none of the objections which oppose it seem to 
impede a union for defence. This matter is one in 
which all the Colonies have interests common with 
each other, and identical with the policy of Eng- 
land." 

The Government of the day presented a scheme 
which was rightly characterized by Lord Monck as 
containing no principle calculated to produce effective 
results, and to be entirely illusory and nugatory as 
far as the enrolment of the militia was concerned. 
Lord Monck enclosed the heads of a plan for the 
reorganization and increase of the active militia, 
based mainly on the voluntary principle, with rules 
for the erection of armories, drill-sheds, and rifie- 
rangers, and the appointment of brigade-majors and 
sergeants, &c., and other means of a perfect organ- 
ization. The scheme was to raise an active battal- 
ion for each territorial division of the country corre- 
sponding with the regimental district of the sedentary 
militia, to be increased in number as needed, each 
active battalion to be taken from the sub-division of 
the district. Mr. Macdonald thought no Government 
could exist which would venture to recommend the 
raising of 50,000 partially trained militia, although 
the cost, spread over five years, would scarcely exceed 
the annual appropriations. In fact, at the root of 
all these various schemes and plans lay the evil of 
uncertainty. Canada did not know how far England 
would go in her defence, and seemed fearful of 
granting anything, lest it might be an obligation 
which the mother-country would have otherwise 
9* 



190 CANADA. 

incurred, whilst England, by withholding any definite 
promise, or indulging only in vague ren:ionstrances, 
sought to make the Canadians show their hands. 
Each was anxious for an answer to the question, 
" How much will you give us ? " The Military 
Commissioners reported that Canada ought to pro- 
vide 150,000 men, including the reserves, which force, 
large as it is, would be less than that furnished by 
states of smaller population in the Northern Union 
but Canada is very poor, and not unnaturally makes 
the most of the argument that she can have no war 
of her own, and that her defence should be our affair. 
No one, I apprehend, will allow himself to be beaten 
to death because there is no policeman by. 

In February, 1863, a report of the state of the mi- 
litia of the Province was prepared by Lieutenant- 
Colonel de Salaberry and Lieutenant-Colonel Powell, 
of the Adjutant-General's of Militia Department in 
Lower and Upper Canada, respectively, from which 
it appears that there were then 25,000 volunteers or- 
ganized, of whom 10,230 belonged to Lower, and 
14,780 belonged to Upper Canada. Of these there 
were proportionately 38 for every 1000 in the cities, 
and 7;^j for every 1000 in the counties; those in the 
upper section contributing less than those in the 
lower section, and Upper Canada contributing a larger 
number on the 1000 than Lower Canada. In the 
enumeration of the various companies — field bat- 
teries, troops of horse, companies of artillery, engi- 
neers, rifles, infantry, naval and marine companies — 
it is to be observed that only one naval company 
appears as having performed twelve days' drill. 
Some steps should be taken to develop naval and 
marine companies in the passes along the shores 
of the lakes. The importance of having trained 
sailors and gunners stationed just where they are 
wanted cannot be exaggerated, but it is not very 
likely that Brigade -Majors will look after such 'a 



VOLUNTEER FORCE. 1*91 

force. It must be remembered that the national 
force of Canada consists of two different organiza- 
tions — the volunteer militia and the regular militia. 
Canada is divided into twenty-one military districts, 
eleven in Lower and ten in Upper Canada. In each 
district there is a Brigade- Major to superintend the 
drill and instruction of all volunteer companies fur- 
nish monthly reports thereon, and by inspections and 
active organization to promote the efficiency of 
the volunteer service as far as possible. The ap- 
pointment of these officers has been attended with 
very good results in this branch of the Militia Staff. 
In August, 1862, forty-six non-commissioned officers 
were sent out by Government, and paid by the 
Canadian Parliament, to drill volunteers ; and sixty- 
eight sergeants were subsequently applied for to 
meet the increasing demand for instruction. The 
report of the Deputy-Adjutant Generals of Militia, 
presented to Lord Monck in 1863, stated, — 

" Taking population as a basis, these Volunteer 
Corps are distributed as follows: — 

" Population all Canada (census 1861), 2,506,752, 
— present Volunteer force, 25,010, or say 10 Volun- 
teers for each 1000 inhabitants. 

" Population : — 

Lower Canada, 1,110,664 Volunteers, 10,230, —or say 9^ for each 1000. 
Upper Canada, 1,396,088 " 14,780, — or say 10| for each 1000. 



2,506,752 25,010 



" Population all Canada, showing proportion of 
Volunteers in cities and counties. 

Cities, 257,273 Volunteers 8,525, — or say 33 for each 1000. 

Rural, 2,249,479 " 16,485, — or say 7^ for each 1000. 



2,506,752 25,010 

" Population of Cities. 

Lower Canada, 153,389 Volunteers, 5,500, or say 36 for each 1000. 

Upper Canada, 103,884 • " 3,025, or say 29 for each 1000. 

257,273 8,525 



192 CANADA. 

" Population of E-ural Parts. 

Lower Canada, 957,275 Voluuteers, 4,730, or sav 5 for each 1000. 

Upper Canada, 1,292,204 " 11,755, or say 9 for each 1000. 

2,249,479 16,485 

" It will thus be seen that in the cities of Canada, 
those in the Upper Section of the Province contrib- 
ute less, in proportion to their population, than do 
those in the Lower Section ; while in the rural parts, 
Upper Canada contributes a larger number for each 
1000 inhabitants than does Lower Canada. 

" The volunteering, thus far, has been the free-will 
offering of the people, and it is gratifying to observe 
that in the counties of Upper Canada, with the ex- 
ception of three, nearly every one has furnished its 
quota of the 25,000 now organized, while in many 
instances they are considerably beyond the propor- 
tionate number. 

" In Lower Canada, until of late, volunteer corps 
have been chiefly organized in the cities, but within 
the last six months a considerable number of volun- 
teers have been organized in the rural parts, and now 
evidences are not wanting that ere long applications 
will be received at this department for permission to 
increase this number considerably. 

" The present volunteer force comprises field bat- 
teries, troops of cavalry, foot companies of artillery, 
engineer companies, rifle companies, companies of 
infantry, and naval and marine companies, and is 
divided properly into three classes, viz : Class A, and 
two divisions of Class B. 

" Corps in Class A are those who have furnished 
their own uniforms, and who have been paid $6.00, 
for each man uniformed, for 12 days' drill performed 
in 1862. 

" First corps in Class B who have furnished their 
own uniforms, and who have been paid $6.00 in lieu 
of clothing, after 12 days' drill performed in 1862. 

" Second corps in Class B who have been organ- 
ized upon the understanding that they receive no 



ailLITIA AND VOLUNTEERS. 193 

pay for the 12 days' drill, but that the Government 
will provide them with uniforms and drill instruc- 
tion. 

" Of the corps in Class A, 6 field batteries, 11 
troops of cavalry, 2 companies of foot artillery, and 
33 rifle companies have certified to the performance 
of ]2 days' drill in accordance with the General 
Order of the 4th November last, and have received 
from the Government $22,672 therefor. 

" Of the corps in Class B, 3 troops of cavalry, 
8 foot companies of artillery, 2 engineer corps, 49 
rifle companies, 15 companies of infantry, and one 
naval company have certified to the performance of 
12 days' drill in accordance with the General Order 
of the 4th November last, and have received from 
the Government $20,952 therefor. 

In the twenty - one districts there were recorded 
468 battalions of sedentary militia. Seventy - six 
driU associations, composed of the officers and non- 
commissioned officers, had been formed, and were 
to be supplied with arms and instructors, to which 
number considerable additions have since been made. 
The total number of militiamen in Lower Canada 
was estimated at 190,000 ; in Upper Canada, at 
280,000. In the former, 63,000 first-class service 
men; in the latter, only 33,000 first-class service 
men. Second-class, 58,000 and 83,000 respectively. 
Reserve, 20,000 and 25,000 respectively. The cities 
of Upper Canada gave 29 volunteers for every 1000 
— the rural districts only 9 volunteers for every 
1000. In three counties containing 50,000 people 
there was no volunteer or volunteer corps. In 
thirteen counties the average number of volunteers 
was 250, and in sixteen counties it was only 125. 

In Lower Canada, however, the zeal of the people 
for militia volunteering was by no means remarkable. 
Thirty counties, with a population of 450,000, had 
not a single volunteer corps, nor one volunteer. The 
towns gave 36 volunteers per 1000, the rural districts 



194 CANADA. 

only per 1000. In fact, the people of French de- 
scent appeared to consider militia volunteering a sort 
of playing at soldiers, which had no particular attrac- 
tions for them. England had taken them in charge, 
and might do as she liked with them. 

By degrees, a great change occurred in the senti- 
ments, if not in the actions, of the people. A little 
more address in dealing with their prejudices; a little 
more of a conciliatory tone ; somewhat greater tact in 
legislative business, produced beneficial results. The 
foundation, at all events, was laid of a sound militia 
bill. The Commissioners who reported in 1862, 
including Mr. Cartier, Mr. John A. Macdonald, Mr. 
Gait, and Colonel Lysons, proposed a scheme which 
was very comprehensive and ably conceived ; but it 
was not considered suitable to the means of the coun- 
try by the politicians, and the debates which arose 
on the Militia Bill prepared in accordance with its 
recommendations, were characterized by an acrimony 
and party spirit which flavored the subsequent dis- 
cussions on the same subject. They recommended 
complete battalions as the base of the system, for 
reasons which are in the abstract irrefutable. They 
then recommended that the Province should be di- 
vided into military districts, as the Commander-in- 
Chief might direct, and that each military district 
should be divided into regimental divisions. They 
further recommended as follows : — 

" That in order to facilitate the enrolment, relief, 
and reinforcement of an active force, each regimental 
division be divided into ' sedentary battalion divis- 
ions,' and be sub-divided into ' sedentary company 
divisions." 

" That each regimental division shall furnish one 
active and one reserve battalion, to be taken as nearly 
as practicable in equal proportions from the male 
population of such division, between the ages of 18 
and 45. 

" That each company of an active battalion, to- 



THE FIRST SUMMONS. 195 

gether with its corresponding reserve connpany, be 
taken from within the limits of a defined territorial 
division, the boundary of which shall be identical with 
that of a sedentary battalion division, or of a distinct 
portion of such division. 

" That in order to accommodate the sedentary bat- 
talion divisions to the organization of the active bat- 
talions, the limits of the former be, where necessary 
rearranged. 

" We recommend that each of the principal cities 
of the Province, namely : Quebec, Montreal, Ot- 
tawa, Kingston, Toronto, Hamilton, and London, 
with such portions of the surrounding country as may, 
from time to time, be added to them by the Com- 
mander-in-Chief, shall constitute a military district, 
to be divided into regimental and sedentary battalion 
divisions, as hereinbefore detailed; that they be al- 
lowed to furnish volunteer militia of the three arms 
in the proportions hereinafter detailed in lieu of active 
battalions of regular militia. In the event of these 
cities failing to furnish their full complement of vol- 
unteers, they shall in part, or altogether, fall under 
the general regulations of the regular militia, in such 
manner as the Commander-in-Chief shall direct." 

The recommendations of the Commissioners were 
to some extent acted upon ; and since the foregoing 
pages were written the first fruits of the volunteer or- 
ganization have been witnessed, in the actual appear- 
ance on service of a number of companies, which have 
been dispatched to guard the frontiers of Canada from 
being made the base of offensive operations against 
the Northern States by Confederate partisans shel- 
tered for the time under the British banner. These 
are but the advance guard of the 80,000 men who 
have been ordered to hold themselves in readiness for 
active service. 

The summons of the Governor-General has been 
beard and obeyed in the best spirit. The people of 
Canada have answered to the call with an honorable 



196 CANADA. 

alacrity, and have displayed a temper which gives the 
fairest guarantee of their services ; but they have not 
indulged in threats or offensive language, and the 
most irritable of Federal Republicans must admit 
that the cause which has called them from their 
homes is entitled to consideration and respect. 



POSSIBLE DANGERS. 197 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Possible Dangers. — The Future Danger. — Open to Attack. — Canals and 
Railways. — Probable Lines of Invasion. — Lines of Attack and De- 
fence. — London. — Toronto. — Defences of Kingston. — Defences of 
Quebec. 

The return of able-bodied males fit for military 
service in Montcalm's time, exceeded the whole num- 
ber of volunteers now actually enrolled ; but the pres- 
ent force is possessed of seven field batteries, of sev- 
eral squadrons of cavalry, and of 15.000 men armed 
with rifled muskets. There must be at this moment 
in Canada at least 50,000 rifles of the best kind. 
There were four 18-pound batteries, two 20-pound 
Armstrong batteries, a large number of howitzers, and 
an immense accumulation of stores last year, which 
have received constant accessions ever since, as the 
threats of the New York press have produced to us in 
increased expense some of the evil results of war. 
There are also in the stores great quantities of old- 
fashioned brass and iron field and siege guns, of shot 
and shell, of mortars, and of ammunition. 

The Americans can find no fault with us for taking 
steps, in view of contingencies which they have 
threatened, to obviate, as far as possible, the disad- 
vantages to which distance from the mother-country 
exposes the Provinces. It was enough that before the 
days of steam, which has greatly increased the dis- 
parity between us, Great Britain submitted to condi- 
tions in regard to the Lakes which could only be 
justified by the supposition that Canada was the 
western shore of Great Britain. By the articles of 
the Treaty of 1817, the United States of America and 
Great Britain are limited to one vessel with one 18- 



198 CANADA. 

pounder and a crew of one hundred men each on Lake 
Ontario, Lake Champlain, and the upper lakes. No 
other vessels of war are to be built or armed, and six 
months' notice is required to terminate the treaty 
obligations. 

It will have been observed that the Americans of 
the Northern States are spoken of as the only enemies 
whom Canada has to fear. They are the only peo- 
ple who threaten from time to time the conquest and 
annexation of the Provinces, and who have declared 
by the mouths of their statesmen, that they intend to 
insist, when they are strong enough, on the fulfilment 
of the doctrine that the whole continent is theirs ; for 
the natural basis of the Monroe dogma is, the right 
of the Americans to lay down the doctrine at all ; and 
if they can say to the nations of Europe, " You shall 
make no further settlements on this soil," they can 
say, when it pleases them, with just as much right, 
" You who are now occupying this soil must either 
leave it or own allegiance to the Union." The Union 
is now, what it never was before, a sovereignty, and 
Americans in its name fancy that they can do what 
they please. The Canadians are by no means well 
disposed towards their neighbors' institutions, man- 
ners, and customs, and do not desire to be incorpor- 
ated with them. The annexation must, therefore, be 
effected by force, sufficiently great to overpower the 
resistance of the inhabitants, whether singly or sup- 
ported by the British army and navy. 

It fortunately happens that the freedom of speech 
and writing prevalent in the United States are safety- 
valves for the popular steam, and that words are not 
always indicative of immediate or even of remote 
action. It would be difficult to estimate the nature 
of the influences which shall prevail when the Amer- 
ican civil war is over. If the North succeeds in over- 
coming the South, no great danger of war with Great 
Britain or of invasion of Canada will exist. It will 
need every man of the Federal army to occupy the 



THE FUTURE DANGER. 199 

Southern States. If, on the other hand, the North 
should be obliged to abandon her project of forcing 
the carcass of the South back into the Union by the 
sword, she will suddenly find herself with a large 
army on her hands, with a ruined exchequer, and 
an immense fund of mortified ambition and angry 
passion to discount. 

It is possible that the sober and just-minded men 
who form a large part of American society may be 
able to avert a conflict, if the American soldiery and 
statesmen entertain the views attributed to them ; but 
that is just the point on which no information exists. 
It is not easy to ascertain the actual weight of the 
classes who would naturally oppose the press and the 
populace in a crusade against Great Britain. My own 
experience, limited and imperfect as it is, leads me to 
think that there is in the States a very great number, 
if not an actual majority, of people whose views 
are not much influenced by violent journals or intem- 
perate politicians, who rarely take part in public 
affairs, but exercise, nevertheless, their influence on 
those who do. There is not a community in the 
Northern States which does not contain a large pro- 
portion of educated, intelligent, and upright men, who 
shrink from participation in party struggles and in- 
trigue ; and I regret that they are not more largely 
known. Their existence is marked by no outward 
sign foreign nations can recognize. It is on them, 
however, that the safety and reputation of the Fed- 
eral Government depends; it will be on them that 
their country's reliance must be placed when the 
legions return home. 

If the war were over in 1865, there would probably 
be 600,000 men under arms, and there would be at 
least 200,000 more men in the States who had served, 
and would take up arms against England with alac- 
rity. A considerable proportion of that army would 
indeed seek their discharge, and go quietly back to 
their avocations ; but the Irish, Germans, &c., to 



200 CANADA. 

whom the license of war was agreeable, would not 
be unwilling to invade Canada, and a percentage 
of Americans would doubtless eagerly seek for an 
opportunity of gaining against a foreign enemy the 
laurels they had not found v/hilst contending with 
their fellow-countrymen. Commerce, indeed, would 
suffer — the Americans would find for the first time 
what it was to enter upon a quarrel single-handed 
with the British nation. They have hitherto met 
only the side blows and stray shots of the old mother- 
country — and they believe they have encountered 
the full weight of her arm, and the utmost extent of 
her energies. The wicked men who are striving to 
engage the two States in a quarrel which would 
cover the seas of the world with blood and wreck, 
cannot be deterred from their horrible work by any 
appeals to fear or conscience ; but the influence of 
the past, and of the Christian and civilized people 
of the ex-United States will, it is to be hoped, defeat 
their efforts, seconded though they may be by the 
prejudice, religious animosity, and national dislike 
of a portion of the people. If the war party prevail 
they will have no want of pretexts — the San Juan 
question alone would suffice them if they had not a 
whole series of imaginary wrongs to resent, arising 
from the incidents of the present war, and a multi- 
tude of claims to prefer to which England can never 
listen. 

At some day, near or remote, Canada must become 
either independent in whole or in part, or a portion 
of a foreign state. It will be of no small moment 
for those then living in Great Britain whether they 
have alienated the affections or have won the hearts 
of the newly created power. Those who doubt this 
may consider how a Gaul now rules over the ruler 
of Rome, and how all that remains of an evidence of 
the occupancy of this Island by the masters of the 
world for four hundred years, are tumuli, ruined 
walls, stratified roads, and bits of tile and pottery. 



OPEN TO ATTACK. 201 

The climate of Canada is not more severe than that 
of Russia — her natural advantages are much great- 
er — her inland seas are never frozen — her commu- 
nications with Europe are easy — she offers a route 
to all the world from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
The United States will be no longer a country for 
the poor man to live in ; the load of taxation will 
force emigration to Canada, and the States lying on 
the left banks of the lakes and of the St. Lawrence 
will be enriched by the demands of America for her 
produce, in proportion as the waste lands are occu- 
pied, and the Union is filled with a tax-paying swarm- 
ing population. It is astonishing how soon a man 
liberates himself from the traditions and allegiance 
of his native-country in the land of his adoption, 
when his interests and his pride are touched. The 
attitude of our immediate colonies in face of the 
transportation question will at once satisfy us that 
the mother-country has little to expect from old 
associations, whenever her interests are made to 
appear antagonistic to those of her colonies. Can- 
ada has the most liberal institutions in the world — 
her municipal freedom is without parallel — educa- 
tion is widely disseminated — religious toleration 
restrains the violence of factions. The cold is by 
no means as great as that which is borne by the 
inhabitants of the greater part of northern Europe, 
and is far less dangerous to health than the more 
temperate climates of lower latitudes, where rain 
and tempest are substituted for snow and hard 
frosts. 

The frontier of Canada is assailable at all points. 
In some places it is constituted by a line only visible 
on a map, in others it is a navigable inland sea, in 
others a line drawn in water, in others the bank of a 
river or the shore of a lake. Coincident with it runs 
the frontier of the United States. 

The best guarantee against invasion would be, 
complete naval supremacy on the lakes and rivers, 



202 CANADA 

because they constitute the most accessible roads for 
the invaders, and the most serviceable barriers for 
defenders, if they have the proper means of defence. 
To give any chance of successful resistance, some 
equality of naval force on the part of the invaded is 
almost indispensable. The question arises, who 
shall provide this naval force ? Canada cannot. She 
is prevented by Imperial treaties, by want of means, 
and even if she had them, she is forbidden to use the 
means, by the principle which forbids a dependency 
equipping ships of war in times of peace. Great 
Britain has, no doubt, a powerful fleet, but the far 
inferior navy of the United States, close at hand, 
contains more vessels suitable for warlike operations 
in inland waters and canals than we possess, 4000 
miles away. In fact we ought to have a very great 
preponderance of small vessels to give us a fair start, 
and even then it would be difficult to begin hostilities 
on equal terms. Lake Michigan, with the enormous 
resources of Chicago, is entirely American, and the 
possession of such a base is an advantage which is 
by no means counterbalanced by our position on 
Lake Huron. To prevent the enemy clearing all be- 
fore them on the lakes, by an energetic naval sortie 
from their ports, it would be necessary to have the 
means of furnishing a flotilla as soon as hostilities 
became imminent, and to watch every point, particu- 
larly such as that of Sorel, where communication from 
Richt-iieu to the St. LawTcnce might be interrupted. 
But it is thought we cannot hope to cope with the 
Americans on equal terms in all the lakes, and that we 
must be content with concentrating our strength on 
Lake Ontaria and in the St. Lawrence. All our 
water-ways are very much exposed. Whilst Great 
Britain retains her supremacy, the St. Lawrence is 
open during the summer, and can be kept free by 
iron-plated vessels as far up as Montreal. The day 
of wooden gunboats has passed, and it becomes 
requisite for the Government to take immediate 



CANALS AND RAILWAYS. 203 

steps to secure an adequate supply of armored 
vessels on the spot as soon as hostilities become prob- 
able. It is gratifying to know that the Canadian 
Legislature is about to fortify the harbor and arsenal 
at Kingston, so as to cover the infant naval force. 
Under any circumstances, it is not possible to de- 
fend a canal by guarding the locks, or by placing 
forts at particular places, and yet the canals are of 
vital importance to us. The Beauharnais Canal runs 
on the right bank of the St. Lawrence, and is pecu- 
liarly unfortunate in its military position. The 
Welland Canal is of consequence, but it would be 
better to destroy it than permit an enemy to hold it. 
The Rideau Canal, which runs from Lake Huron to 
Kingston, is a very valuable communication, but it 
needs to be deepened and enlarged at the Rapids. 
All the canals require to be enlarged and improved, 
but they are far better placed, bad as their state and 
position are, than the roads and railways. The Grand 
Trunk Railway is open to attack for many miles at 
different parts of its course, and in some places 
trains could be fired upon from American territory! 
Our reinforcements last winter were sent through 
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, in sleighs, along 
a route which for miles could be cut across at any 
time by the enemy from Maine, and it would be 
necessary, to make all safe, for us to follow the Met- 
apodliac road, or to construct the intercolonial rail- 
way. 

The harbors of Halifax and of St. John's are not 
closed in winter, and the mode which was adopted 
of sending troops into Canada by those points would 
no doubt be reverted to till some better means shall 
be provided. From St. Andrew's, in New Bruns- 
wick, there is a railroad to Woodstock, which lies 
near the State boundary of Maine. Here the route 
from St. John's meets the St. Andrew road, and, 
united, the line follows the course of the St. John 
River, and may be divided into four days' marches 



204 CANADA. 

— to Florenceville, 1 ; to Tobique, 2 ; to Grand Falls, 
3 ; to Little Falls, 4. All this route lies close to the 
American frontier, and is therefore quite unfit for 
the march of troops in detachments. The St. 
John's route also takes four days to Woodstock. 
Even with the advantages afforded by the line of 
railroad, it must be remembered that the snows of 
winter may often mar all combinations; — our first 
detachments suffered considerably from cold in the 
railway carriages, and it may be readily conceived 
that the course of an army in sleighs to Riviere du 
Loup on the St. Lawrence, where the Grand Trunk 
Railway begins or terminates, might be rendered 
very unsafe by no more formidable agencies than 
violent snow-storms alone. 

Our military authorities do not, it is said, fear a 
winter campaign, but the Americans have already 
shown that they are not to be deterred by frost and 
snow from moving troops into Canada. To ensure 
moderate security the Metis road, notwithstanding 
its greater length, should be improved and adapted 
for military purposes, and the railway should be con- 
structed to complete the work. In considering the 
three modes of invasion of which I shall speak, it 
may be inferred that IMontreal will be the most likely 
point of attack, and that Quebec will be compara- 
tively safe at first, but it would not be wise to acton 
the hypothesis as if it were an absolute certainty. 

In the State of New York, at its capital of Albany, 
the Americans possess an admirable base of opera- 
tions against us. Except in winter, the Hudson is 
an open highway between Albany and New York, 
and the sea and railways connect it with the shores 
of the lakes and with the vast centres of American 
resource and industry. Albany is specially capable 
of serving as a base against the very places most 
likely to be assailed, Montreal and Quebec. There 
is no necessity for any argument to show that the 
loss of these places would be equivalent to the over- 



PEOBABLE LINES OF INVASION. 205 

throw of the British in Canada. From the Hudson 
there is a canal to Lake Champlain, on the upper 
extremity of which, and almost on the railroad con- 
necting Montreal with New York, is situated a case- 
mated work popularly known as Rouse's Point, 
about two days' march from the commercial capital 
of Canada. Rouse's Point would serve as an im- 
mediate base for the collection of supplies and the 
concentration of an army, whilst Albany would be- 
come the great depot for the war. It is probable 
that the Americans would try to strike several blows 
at once. They might direct one expeditionary force 
from Rouse's Point against Montreal, and others 
from Albany and Rouse's Point against Quebec. 
They might also menace, or actually attack, the 
frontier at Detroit or at Niagara. As a war with 
Great Britain would be popular, and no lack of men 
would be found, it would also be practicable for 
them to direct from either of those points an expedi- 
tion to attack Ottawa, or the towns west of the river 
Ottawa. 

Kingston would also be a point of attack, as much 
from its importance to us as from its value to the 
enemy, who would, by the possession of it, command 
the Rideau Canal, which connects the river Ottawa 
with Lake Ontario. It is plain that if the points 
liable to attack were left in their present state, there 
would be little hope of our ability to defend them by 
fighting in the open field. United, the Americans 
are to the Canadians as about eight to one. The 
State of New York alone is as populous, and is 
richer, than the Canadas. Great Britain, thousands 
of miles away, could not hope, by any expenditure 
of money, or by any display of military skill, to 
equalize the conditions of the assailants and the 
defenders of her sovereignty. The engineers are 
right, therefore, in the argument, that the only way 
of enabling the Canadians and their British allies to 
make way against the Republicans, is to establish 

10 



206 CANADA. 

fortified works supported by or supporting a naval 
force. The Americans have an idea that it is possi- 
ble to carry on operations during winter. Our en- 
gineers start with the assumption that it is impossible 
to do so on any large scale, and that it is out of the 
question for some five months of the year in Canada. 
The obstructions to siege operations might not be so 
serious, but they would be so considerable as to ren- 
der the undertaking of them exceedingly hazardous, 
and little likely to succeed. The question, then, pre- 
sents itself whether Canada can be defended for the 
time in each year during which operations are prac- 
ticable, and if so, in what manner the defence is to 
be conducted. Our military authorities are of opin- 
ion that Canada can be defended. The Americans, 
as far as I could judge from their remarks on the 
subject, and from conversations with several of their 
officers, conceive that Canada lies at their mercy 
whenever they choose to attack it. As a chain of 
great frontier fortresses could not be established or 
maintained, the means suggested for the purposes 
of defence are principally of a provisional character. 
To meet the flood of invasion, it is proposed to cover 
the approaches to the vulnerable points. Ottawa, 
Montreal, and Quebec would be defended by forces 
posted in earthworks, and covered by entrenched 
camps at Prescott and Richmond, and other suitable 
places. 

If we examine the modes of proceeding to which 
the enemy would probably resort, we shall find them 
classified under five heads. First, a naval descent 
on Goderich. Second, the descent of a force be- 
tween Detroit and London. Thirdly, the descent of 
a force on Niagara. Fourthly, the passage of a force 
between the St. Lawrence and Ogdensburg. Fifthly, 
an attack by several columns converging in concert 
on a point between Derby and Huntingdon, with a 
view of concentrating on Montreal, and cutting the 
communications with Kingston as well as with Que- 



LINES OF ATTACK AND DEFENCE. 207 

bee. Let us take a glance at the present state of the 
principal points, and consider what is needed to im- 
prove their condition. 

If we look at the map of Upper Canada, the posi- 
tion of Paris at once attracts the eye as a favorable 
site for the main body of the defensive force ; whilst 
Stratford and London, being points of railway junc- 
tion, would naturally be held as long as possible. 
Guelph would serve as a point of concentration for 
troops obliged to fall back from London or from Strat- 
ford, according to the direction from which the enemy 
came. Toronto would become the natural point 
of concentration for troops obliged to retire from 
Guelph, and under the conditions necessitating such 
a retreat the force defending the Niagara frontier 
would be obliged to fall back upon Hamilton to the 
entrenched position covering that town. If the 
Americans attack the western settlements near 
Georgian Bay, it seems impossible to oppose them 
with assured advantage. A calm consideration of 
the subject has led the best authorities to the conclu- 
sion that we cannot hope at present to establish a 
naval force on either Lake Huron or Lake Erie. 
The Welland Canal is, in its present state, unsuited 
to the purposes of modern naval warfare, and a canal 
is at all times, and under the most favorable circum- 
stances, very little to be depended upon. With the 
aid of fortified harbors there is, however, no reason 
to fear for our naval supremacy on Lake Ontario, 
and it is to that object our best efforts should be 
directed. It would of course be impolitic to leave 
Toronto and Hamilton open to naval demonstra- 
tions, but the principal efforts of the authorities 
should be directed to establish permanent works to 
protect Ottawa, Montreal, Kingston, and Quebec, 
and to prepare positions for entrenched camps and 
earthworks on the points most likely to be assailed. 

It is plain that a navy alone can prevent descents 
on the land line of such extensive waters, and that 



208 CANADA. 

the possession of Rouse's Point enables the Ameri- 
cans to turn the line of the Richelieu and threaten 
Montreal. Let us run rapidly over the positions, 
beginning with the west. If works were thrown up 
at Goderich and Sydenham on points there which 
are suitable for defensive positions, it might be pos- 
sible to check any adventurous force intent on speedy 
victory and conquest ; but no fortifications could be 
maintained on those remote points for permanent 
occupation, as the enemy could operate on the flanks 
and rear and turn them from Huron or Georgian Bay. 

A permanent work on Point Edward Sarnia, to 
command the St. Clair River, has been suggested, 
and it has been recommended that the defences of 
Fort Maldon and Bar Island should be made perma- 
nent works, but other engineers have considered it 
unwise to erect fortifications at Sarnia or Amherst- 
burg, and contend that the Niagara and Detroit 
frontiers are too much exposed to be tenable by any 
works. Guelph should also be rendered worthy of 
its important position. London, being a railway 
station, is, in event of a war, an important point to 
hold for the carriage of troops; and although there is 
no ground close at hand admitting of tenacious grip, 
there is a tolerably good line of defence at Konoska, 
which the spade could convert into a fair position. 

When we come to consider the condition of the 
Toronto district it becomes apparent that two points 
require especial attention — Fort Dalhousie and Port 
Colborne. It is unwise to leave these places without 
defences to cover the garrisons, and to enable them 
to protect the shore against desultory operations and 
isolated detachments. Domville and Maitland are 
open to predatory attacks which might be prevented 
by ordinary fortifications or earthworks on eligible 
sites. It is impossible to defend a canal; but much 
good might be done by enlisting the employes on the 
Welland as a sort of guard, whose local knowledge 
would be available in time of danger. Although, as 



DEFENCES OF KINGSTON. 209 

I have said, strong reasons are urged against any 
outlay for the defence of the Niagara frontier, on the 
ground of its exposure, there are distinguished author- 
ities who insist that a permanent work is required at 
Fort Erie ; and who contend that another fort should 
be erected- at Niagara, in support of an entrenched 
camp, which would exercise a most powerful influ- 
ence over the movements of an invading force, par- 
ticularly if there were gunboats placed on the Chip- 
pewa. One of the painful necessities of war between 
the United States and Great Britain would be the 
destruction of the suspension bridges over the river. 
Hamilton is generally considered as incapable of de- 
fence, but it lies in a district which presents two 
lines of hills capable of being adapted to defensive 
purposes, and earthworks there might be stiffly held, 
in case of attack, by the troops of the district, to en- 
able the forces to concentrate and retire along routes 
previously determined. Toronto itself may be re- 
garded as an open place equally incapable oF defence 
by ordinary works ; but it should not be left open to 
such a coup by a single cruiser, as might be obviated 
by the erection of a fort on the site of the new 
barracks ; and it would be necessary to construct a 
strong entrenched camp to cover it and protect the 
troops retiring before the enemy. A chain of earth- 
works might be placed on the elevated ridges which 
run from the Don River towards Humber Bay. A 
casemated fort on the island is also most desirable. 
Toronto has something more than its mere strategi- 
cal importance to recommend it. It has special 
claims to consideration as an important centre of 
civilized life, commerce, enterprise, and learning. 

The delences of Kingston are more worthy of its 
ancient importance. In fact, the only works in Can- 
ada suited to modern warfare are those at Kingston 
and Quebec. The latter are capable of much im- 
provement, as has been already pointed out. Both 
need to be strengthened, and to be extended. If the 



210 CANADA. 

Americans have beaten us by treaty, why should we 
not at all events have iron-plated vessels sent up the 
St. Lawrence as far as treaty will allow them to go, 
and prepare naval establishments and encourage 
naval volunteers for times of danger at Kingston? 
Fort Henry, Fort Frederick, an earthen work, and 
the Market Battery, are in good condition, but much 
must be done before the place can be regarded as be- 
ing in a satisfactory state. The Shoal Tower, the 
Cedar Island Tower, and the Marney Tower, con- 
structed of stone, are placed on points covering the 
watef approaches to Kingston. But all the guns in 
these works, with one exception, are en barbette^ and 
to render Kingston safe it w^ould be necessary to erect 
strong works to resist the advance of an enemy land- 
ing either above or below the town. It is estimated 
that 390,000/. would be sufficient for the purpose of 
erecting the permanent forts absolutely indispensable 
for the safety of the harbor and dockyard establish- 
ment. The position of these works should be chosen 
with a due regard to all possible conditions of attack. 
Wolfe Island, Abraham's Head, Snake Island, Sim- 
coe Island, and Garden Island, should be provided 
with adequate forts to support the new scheme of 
defence. The Navy Yard should be removed, and 
the points now open to attack at once fortified. 
Belleville and Prescott both afford admirable ground 
for works of great importance : the former possesses 
a most advantageous site for temporary works and 
for a line of defence ; and the latter has such a com- 
manding situation that a permanent work, with 
casemates, should be constructed there to guard what 
is, according to some of our engineers, one of the 
most valuable positions in the province. 

When we come to consider the actual state of 
Montreal, its importance, its liability to attack, and 
the difficulty of offering ain adequate defence, the 
best means to adopt are not very obvious. The best 
method of defence would doubtless be to construct an 



DEFENCES OF QUEBEC. 21.1 

entrenched position, consisting of a parapet strength- 
ened by redoubts, to cover the approach from the 
south side. A tete de pont should be built to cover 
the approaches now so open and exposed to attack. 

The enlargement of the Ottawa and Rideau canals 
is of obvious importance, and outlying works might 
be traced which could be used in case of invasion to 
hold the enemy in check ; but still, as a precautionary 
measure, it would be desirable to remove the more 
important stores at Montreal to Quebec and Ottawa, 
if it is in contemplation to make this valuable posi- 
tion subsidiary to any place in Canada. 

Permanent works might be erected at St. John's, 
the Isle aux Noix, and St. Helen's Island, where forts 
should be reconstructed on improved principles. But 
the most obvious measure, in the opinion of some 
engineers, the fortification of the hill over the city, 
and the erection of a Citadel upon it, which would 
render the mere occupation of the town below value- 
less to an enemy, is not approved of by more recent 
authorities. 

Gunboats on Lake St. Louis would prove most 
valuable in defending the works at Vaudrueuil. 

Quebec is, however, the key of Canada ; and that 
key can be wrested from our own grasp at any mo- 
ment by a determined enemy, unless the recommen- 
dations so strongly urged from time to time by all 
military authorities meet with consideration. The 
old enceinte should, be removed and the French 
works restored, according to the suggestions of scien- 
tific officers, and of the ablest engineers we possess. 
An entrenched camp might be marked out to the 
west of the Citadel, with a line of parapet and re- 
doubts extending from the St. Lawrence to the St. 
Charles River. In order to cover the city from an 
attack on the south side, it would be necessary to 
occupy Point Levi, and to construct a strong en- 
trenched line, with redoubts at such a distance as 
would prevent the enemy from coming near the river 



212 CANADA. 

to shell the city and citadel. But it is evident that 
they are 7iil ad rem^ unless behind these works, and 
in support of them in the open, can be assembled a 
force of sufficient strength to prevent an investment, 
or to attack the investing armies, and at the same 
time to hold front against them in the field. It is 
estimated that 150,000 men might hold the whole of 
the Canadas, East and West, against twice that 
number of the enemy. If we are to judge by what 
has passed, it is not probable the United States will 
be inclined or able for such an effort. Quebec mJght 
be held with 10,000 men against all comers. From 
25,000 to 30,000 men would make Montreal safe. 
Kingston would require 20,000 men, and Ottawa 
would need 5000. The greater part, if not all of 
them, might be composed of militia, and volunteers 
trained to gunnery and the use of small arms. For 
the protection of the open country, and to meet the 
enemy in the field, an army of from 25,000 to 85,000 
men would be needed from Lake Ontario to Quebec. 
The western district on Lake Erie could not be pro- 
tected by less than 60,000 men. 

Thus, in case of a great invasion from the United 
States, Canada, with any assistance Great Britain 
could afford her, must have 150,000 men ready for 
action. What prospect there is of this, may best be 
learned from a consideration, not so much of the 
resources of Canada, as of the willingness of the peo- 
ple to use them. 



RAPID INCREASE OF POPULATION. 213 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Rapid Increase of Population. — Mineral Wealtli. — Cereals. — Imports and 
Exports. — Climate. — Agriculture. — A Settler's Life. 

Tpie rapid increase of population and settlements 
in Canada, and the growth of cities and towns, are 
among the great marvels of the. last and of the pres- 
ent centmy, so rich in wonders of the kind. It is not 
too much to say, that any approximation to a similar 
rate of increase will make British North America a 
great power in the world. The direction of emigra- 
tion has not been favorable. The Germans and the 
Irish have rather sought the United States. The 
emigrating powers of Scotland are rapidly decreasing, 
and the few English who emigrate prefer Australia, 
New Zealand, even the States of the Union, to a 
country which suffers from the early neglect of the 
home government, the studied aspersions and mis- 
representations of powerful agencies, and the igno- 
ance of the poorer classes who seek to improve their 
condition by going forth in search of new homes. 

Mr. Sheridan Hogan, the writer of a prize essay on 
Canada of no ordinary excellence, has devoted some 
of his pages to show that the growth of Canada in 
population has been overlooked in the scope of the 
wondering gaze which Europe has fixed on the de- 
velopment of the United States, although, in fact, the 
increase of Canadians in the land has been quite 
as astonishing as that of Americans south of the 
St. Lawrence. In 1800, he says, the population of 
the United States was 5,305,925. In 1850 it was 
20,250,000. The increase was therefore 300 per cent, 
nearly. In 1811 the population of Upper Canada 
was 77,000, and in 1851 it was 952,000, an increase 

10* 



214 CANADA. 

of over 1100 per cent, in forty years. Within the 
decade up to 1855 the rate of increase in the United 
States was 13.20 per cent. In Upper Canada it was 
104 per cent, from 1841 to 1851. Upper Canada ex- 
hibited in forty years nearly four times the increase 
of the United States in fifty years. Even the popu- 
lation of Lower Canada increased 90 per cent, from 
1839 to 1854. In a table in the same work it appears 
that the Irish in Lower Canada were more than 
double the English and Scotch together, and that 
they equalled both in Upper Canada. The writer 
says : — 

" The ' World's Progress,' published by Putnam, 
of New York, — a reliable authority, — gives the 
population and increase of the principal cities in the 
United States. Boston, between 1840 and 1850, in- 
creased forty-five per cent. Toronto, within the same 
period, increased ninety -five per cent. New York, 
the great emporium of the United States, and re- 
garded as the most prosperous city in the world, in- 
creased, in the same time, sixty-six per cent., about 
thirty less than Toronto. 

" The cities of St. Louis and Cincinnati, which 
have also experienced extraordinary prosperity, do 
not compare with Canada any better. In the thirty 
years preceding 1850, the population of St. Louis 
increased fifteen times. In the thirty-three years 
preceding the same year, Toronto increased eighteen 
times. And Cincinnati increased, in the same period 
given to St. Louis, but twelve times. 

" Hamilton, a beautiful Canadian city at the head 
of Lake Ontario, and founded much more recently 
than Toronto, has also had almost unexampled pros- 
perity. In 1836 its population was but 2846, in 
1854 it was upwards of 20,000. 

" London, still farther west in Upper Canada, and 
a yet more recently founded city than Hamilton, 
being surveyed as a wilderness little more than 
tw^enty - five years ago, has now upwards of ten 
thousand inhabitants. 



RAPID INCREASE OF POPULATION. 215 

" The city of Ottawa, recently called after the 
magnificent river of that name, and upon which it is 
situated, has now above 10,000 inhabitants, although 
in 1830 it had but 140 houses, including mere sheds 
and shanties ; and the property upon which it is 
built was purchased, not many years before, for 
eiglLty pounds. 

" The town of Bradford, situated between Hamil- 
ton and London, and w^hose site was an absolute 
wilderness twenty-five years ago, has now a popula- 
latLon of 6000, and has increased, in ten years, up- 
wards of three hundred per cent. ; and this without 
any other stimulant or cause save the business aris- 
ing from the settlement of a fine country adjacent 
to it. 

" The towns of Belleville, Cobourg, Woodstock, 
Goderich, St. Catherine's, Paris, Stratford, Port Hope, 
and Dundas, in Upper Canada, show similar pros- 
perity, some of them having increased in a ratio even 
greater than that of Toronto, and all of them but so 
many evidences of the improvement of the country, 
and the growth of business and population around 
them. 

" That some of the smaller towns in the United 
States have enjoyed equal prosperity I can readily 
believe, from the circumstances of a large population 
suddenly filling up the country contiguous to them. 
Buffalo and Chicago, too, as cities, are magnificent 
and unparalleled examples of the business, the energy, 
and the progress of the United States. But that 
Toronto should have quietly and unostentatiously 
increased in population in a greater ratio than New 
York, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, and that the other 
cities and towns of Upper Canada should have kept 
pace with the Capital, is a fact creditable alike to 
the steady industry and the noiseless enterprise of 
the Canadian people. 

" Although Lower Canada, from the circumstance 
already alluded to of the tide of emigration flowing 



216 CANADA. 

westward, has not advanced so rapidly as her sister 
Province, yet some of her counties and cities have 
recently made great progress. In the seven years 
preceding 1851, the fine county of Megantic, on the 
south side of the St. Lawrence, and through which 
the Quebec and Richmond Railroad passes, increased 
a hundred and sixteen per cent. ; the county of 
Ottawa, eighty - five ; the county of Drummond, 
seventy-eight ; and the county of Sherbrooke, fifty. 
The city of Montreal, probably the most substan- 
tially built city in America, and certainly one of the 
most beautiful, has trebled her population in thirty- 
four years. The ancient city of Quebec has more 
than doubled her population in the same time, and 
Sorel, at the mouth of the Richelieu, has increased 
upwards of four times ; showing that Lower Can- 
ada, with all the disadvantages of a feudal tenm'e, 
and of being generally looked upon as less desirable 
for settlement than the West, has quietly but justly 
put in her claim to a portion of the honor awarded 
to America for her progress." 

Save and except coal, the want of which is to a 
considerable extent compensated by the vast stores 
of forest, of bog and of mineral oils in the Provinces, 
Canada is very rich in many minerals of the first 
importance. Iron is deposited in exceeding abun- 
dance in the Laurentian System — lead, plumbago, 
phosphate of lime, sulphate of barytes, and marbles 
are found in the same wide - spread formation of 
gneiss and limestone. 

The Huron System of slate, &c., contains copper, 
silver, and nickel, jaspers and agates. The Quebec 
group in the East promises to be equally valuable. 
The bases of metallic and ochreous pigments, every 
description of marble and slate, minerals, and sub- 
stances useful in chemistry, in arts, in agriculture, in 
architecture, are scattered throughout the land, from 
Lake Superior to Gaspe. Notwithstanding the long 
winter, Upper Canada yielded, according to late 



EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. 217 

averages, 21 bushels of winter wheat and 18' bushels 
of spring wheat to the acre ; Lower Canada, where 
agriculture has not received the same development, 
yields a smaller proportion to the acre, but the wheat 
is of excellent quality. In Upper Canada the yield 
of oats is about 30 bushels to the acre ; in Lower 
Canada it is 23 bushels. Barley is a little less in 
Upper, and about the same as oats in Lower Can- 
ada, and Indian corn is about as much as oats. The 
potato yields from 125 to 176 bushels per acre. All 
these crops, as well as those of roots of every de- 
scription, are increasing rapidly, and it is calculated 
that the value of the farms of Upper Canada is no 
less than 60,000,000/. sterling, whilst the live stock in 
the same Province was estimated to be worth nearly 
9,000,000/. In 1860 the value of the timber exported 
was 1,750,000/., and the forest yielded altogether 
just 2,000,000/. sterling. As there is reason to know 
that in 1851 the value of agricultural exports was 
6,000,000/., it may be assumed with some degree of 
certainty as a near approximation that Canada sends 
abroad about ten millions' worth of forest and farm 
produce. It is estimated that the imports of the 
same year were worth eighteen millions sterling. 

There are many other illustrations of the rapidity 
of Canadian increase, but the foregoing must suffice 
for the purposes of this volume. It is only surpris- 
ing that the Provinces should have advanced at all, 
considering the misrepresentations which have been 
circulated concerning their climate, condition, and 
prospects, and the attractions held forth to emigrants 
by the United States. 

The popular idea as to the barrenness and cold of 
Canada would be most effectually dispelled by a 
glance at garden products and cereals in autumn 
only, or by the experience of a winter in New York 
and a winter in London or Hamilton. The author 
of a pamphlet, published by authority of the Bureau 
of Agriculture, observes : — 



218 CANADA. 

" The most erroneous opinions have prevailed 
abroad respecting the climate of Canada. The so- 
called rigor of Canadian winters is often advanced 
as a serious objection to the country by many who 
have not the courage to encounter them, who prefer 
sleet and fog to brilliant skies and bracing cold, and 
who have yet to learn the value and extent of the 
blessings conferred upon Canada by her world-re- 
nowned ' snows.' 

" It will scarcely be believed by many who shudder 
at the idea of the thermometer fallen to zero, that 
the gradual annual diminution in the fall of snow, in 
certain localities, is a subject of lamentation to the 
farmers in Western Canada. Their desire is for the 
old-fashioned winters, with sleighing for four months, 
and spring bursting upon them with marvellous 
beauty at the beginning of April. A bountiful fall 
of snow, with hard frost, is equivalent to the con- 
struction of the best macadamized roads all over the 
country. The absence of a sufficient quantity of 
snow in winter for sleighing, is a calamity as much 
to be feared and deplored as the want of rain in 
spring. Happily neither of these deprivations is of 
frequent occurrence. 

" The climate of Canada is in some measure ex- 
ceptional, especially that of the Peninsular portion. 
The influence of the great Lakes is very strikingly 
felt in the elevation of winter temperatures and in 
the reduction of summer heats. East and West of 
Canada, beyond the influence of the Lakes, as in 
the middle of the States of New York and Iowa, 
the greatest extremes prevail, — intense cold in win- 
ter, intense heat in summer, and to these features 
may be added their usual attendant, drought. 

" Perhaps the popular standard of the adaptation of 
climate to the purposes of agriculture is more suit- 
able for the present occasion than a reference to 
monthly and annual means of temperature. Much 
information is conveyed in the simple narration of 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CLIMATE. 219 

facts bearing upon fruit culture. From the head of 
Lake Ontario, round by the Niagara frontier, and all 
along the Canadian shores of Lake Erie, the grape 
and peach grow with luxuriance, and ripen to per- 
fection in the open air, without the slightest artifi- 
cial aid. The island of Montreal is distinguished 
everywhere for the fine quality of its apples, and the 
island of Orleans, below Quebec, is equally cele- 
brated for its plums. Over the whole of Canada 
the melon and tomato acquire large dimensions, and 
ripen fully in the open air, the seeds being planted in 
the soil towards the latter end of April, and the fruit 
gathered in September. Pumpkins and squashes 
attain gigantic dimensions ; they have exceeded 300 
pounds in weight in the neighborhood of Toronto. 
Indian corn, hops, and tobacco are common crops, 
and yield fair returns. Hemp and flax are indige- 
nous plants, and can be cultivated to any extent in 
many parts of the Province. With a proper expen- 
diture of capital, England could be made quite inde- 
pendent of Russia, or any other country, for her 
supply of these valuable products. 

" The most striking illustration of the influence 
of the great Lakes in ameliorating the climate of 
Canada, especially of the western peninsula, is to be 
found in the natural limits to which certain trees are 
restricted by climate. That valuable wood, the black 
walnut, for which Canada is so celebrated, ceases to 
grow north of latitude 41° on the Atlantic coast, but 
under the influence of the comparatively mild Lake 
climate of Peninsular Canada it is found in the 
greatest profusion, and of the largest dimensions, as 
far north as latitude 43°." 

This subject is well illustrated by the subjoined 
table, showing the mean temperature and rainfall at 
Toronto from 1840 to 1859 : — 



220 



CANADA. 



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PROGRESS OF CULTIVATION. 221 

The Rev. Mr. Hope, who has been indefatigable 
in his efforts to promote the interest of his adopted 
country, quotes the following passage from the To- 
ronto " Globe " of September 21st, 1860, to show that 
people at home are much mistaken in considering 
Canada a region of frost and snow. 

" The display of fruit, in quantity and quality, sur- 
passed what has been shown at any previous exhi- 
bition. The results in this department were very 
satisfactory, proving that the climate of Canada 
admirably adapts it for the raising of many of the 
most valuable kinds of fruit. One of the principal 
exhibitors was Mr. Beadle of St. Catharine's nur- 
series. On one side of the central stand in the Crys- 
tal Palace, he had 115 plates of apples, pears, peaches, 
&c., and 30 jars of cherries, currants, raspberries, 
blackberries, &c. Mr. Beadle exhibited ten varieties 
of peaches gi'own in the open air. Several of these 
varieties were of very large dimensions, and were 
much admired for the delicate richness of their tints. 
He exhibited also numerous varieties of apples ; 41 
in one collection of three of each sort, and 20 in an- 
other collection of six of each sort. He had also a 
large show of pears, comprising a large number of 
varieties. Among the varieties of open-air grapes 
shown by Mr. Beadle, were the Blood-blacks, the 
Delaware, the Diana, the Northern Muscadine, the 
Perkins, Sage's Mammoth, and the Wild Fox." 

In 1828, when the whole population of Upper 
Canada amounted to 185,500 inhabitants, the num- 
ber of acres under agricultural improvement was 
570,000, or about 3tV for each individual ; in 1851 
the average for each inhabitant was very nearly four 
acres. The comparative progress of Upper and Lower 
Canada, in bringing the forest-clad wilderness into cul- 
tivation, may be inferred from the following table : — 

LOWER CANADA. UPPER CANADA. 

Year No. acres cultivated. No. acres cultivated. 

1831 2,065,913 818,432 

1844 2,802,317 2,166,101 

1851 3,605,376 3,695,763 



222 CANADA. 

Hence, in a period of twenty years, Lower Canada 
increased her cultivated acres by .75, and Upper Can- 
ada by 3.5. Before proceeding to describe in detail 
the progress of agriculture in Upper Canada, it will 
be advisable to glance at the efforts made by socie- 
ties and the Government of the Province to elevate 
the condition of husbandry in all its departments, 
and to induce the people at large to join hand in 
hand in the march of improvement. 

The Board of Agriculture for Lower Canada took 
decisive steps during the year 1862 to secure the 
proper disbursements of the provincial grant, and to 
devote liberal awards of public money to the pro- 
motion of agricultural industry in all its important 
branches. The Lower Canadian Provincial Shows 
had previously partaken more of the character of an 
agricultural festival than of a meeting for the pur- 
pose of securing the progress of the science and art 
of Agriculture by fair and open competition and 
peaceful rivalry. In this respect they differed mate- 
rially from the same annual expositions in Upper 
Canada, where astonishing advances in the proper 
direction had been made. The Board determined 
to establish an Agricultural Museum, and to give 
assistance to county societies towards the importa- 
tion of improved breeds of horses, cattle, and sheep. 
The Board is willing to advance to any society funds 
for the purchase of stock, retaining one third of the 
annual government allowance for three successive 
years to discharge the debt thus incurred. If this 
new spirit of enterprise should continue, the progress 
of agriculture in Lower Canada will be much accel- 
erated. Although it must be acknowledged that in 
the face of many difficulties, national prejudices, and 
peculiarities of character, a very marked improve- 
ment has taken place in many departments of hus- 
bandry, and in many parts of the Lower Province, 
much, very much, remains to be done. The influence 
exercised by the Agricultural School at St. Anne is 



AGRICULTURE. 223 

already favorably felt, and this establishment appears 
likely to work a beneficial change in Lower Canadian 
husbandry. The details of its operations show its 
great utility. 

The indirect assistance given by the Imperial 
Government to Agriculture in Upper Canada dates 
from a much earlier period than the encouragement 
given to Agricultural Societies by the Provincial 
Government ; for we find among the donation of 
George III. to the U. E. Loyalists the old English 
plough. It consisted of a small piece of iron fixed 
to the coulter, having the shape of the letter L, the 
shank of which went through the wooden beam, the 
foot forming the point, which was sharpened for use. 
One handle, and a plank split from a curved piece 
of timber, which did the duty of a mould-board, com- 
pleted the rude implement. At that time the traces 
and leading lines were made of the bark of the elm 
or bass-wood, which was manufactured by the early 
settlers into a strong rope. About the year 1808 the 
" hog-plough " was imported from the United States ; 
and in 1815 a plough with a cast-iron share and 
mould-board, all in one piece, was one of the first im- 
plements, requiring more than an ordinary degree of 
mechanical skill, which was manufactured in the 
province. The seeds of improvement were then sown, 
and while in the address of the President at the 
Frontenac Cattle Show in 1833, we observe atten- 
tion called to the necessity for further improvement 
in the ploughs common throughout the country, we 
witness, in 1855, splendid fruit at the Paris Exhibi- 
tion. In a notice of the trial of ploughs at Trappes, 
the "Journal d' Agriculture Pratique" makes the 
following reference to a Canadian plough : " The 
ploughing tests^were brought to a close by a trial 
of two ploughs equally remarkable — to wit, the 
plough of Ransome and Sims, of Suffolk, England, 
and that of Bingham, of Norwich, Upper Canada. 
The first is of wood and iron, like all the English 



224 CANADA. 

ploughs, and the results which it produced seemed 
most satisfactory, but it appeared to require a little 
more draught than the Howard plough. Bingham's 
plough very much resembles the English plough ; it 
is very fine and light in its build ; the handles are 
longer than ordinary, which makes the plough much 
more easy to manage. The opinion of the French 
laborers and workmen who were there, appeared, on 
the whole, very favorable to this plough." 

The following extracts from Mr. Hogan's book are 
as truthful as they are eloquent : — 

" Great as has been the prosperity of America, and 
of the settlements which mark the magnificent coun- 
try just described, yet nature has not been wooed in 
them without trials, nor have her treasures been won 
without a struggle worthy of their worth. Those 
who have been in the habit of passing early clearings 
in Upper Canada must have been struck with the 
cheerless and lonely, even desolate appearance of the 
first settler's little log hut. In the midst of a dense 
forest, and with a ' patch of clearing ' scarcely large 
enough to let the sun shine in upon him, he looks 
not unlike a person struggling for existence on a 
single plank in the middle of an ocean. For weeks, 
often for months, he sees not the face of a stranger. 
The same still, and wild, and boundless forest every 
morning rises up to his view ; and his only hope 
against its shutting him in for life rests in the axe 
upon his shoulder. A few blades of corn, peeping 
up between stumps whose very roots interlace, they 
are so close together, are his sole safeguards against 
want ; whilst the few potato plants, in little far- 
between ' hills,' and which struggle for existence 
against the brier-bush and luxuriant underwood, 
are to form the seeds of his futur^ plenty. Tall 
pine-trees, girdled and blackened by the fires, stand 
out as grim monuments of the prevailing loneliness, 
whilst the forest itself, like an immense wall round 
a fortress, seems to say to the settler, — ' How can 



A SETTLER'S LIFE. 225 

poverty ever expect to escape from such a prison- 
house.' 

" That little clearing — for I describe a reality — 
which to others might afford such slender guarantee 
for bare subsistence, was nevertheless a source of 
bright and cheering dreams to that lonely settler. 
He looked at it, and instead of thinking of its little- 
ness, it was the foundation of great hopes of a large 
farm and rich corn-fields to him. And this very dream, 
or poetry, or what you will, cheered him at his lonely 
toil, and made him contented with his rude fireside. 
The blades of corn, which you might regard as con- 
veying but a tantalizing idea of human comforts, 
were associated by him with large stacks and full 
granaries ; and the very thought nerved his arm, and 
made him happy. 

" Seven years afterwards I passed that same set- 
tler's cottage — it was in the valley of the Grand 
River in Upper Canada, not far from the present vil- 
lage of Caledonia. The little log hut was used as a 
back kitchen to a neat two-story-frame-house, painted 
white. A large barn stood near by, with stock of 
every description in its yard. The stumps, round 
which the blades of corn, when I last saw the place, 
had so much difficulty in springing up, had nearly 
all disappeared. Luxuriant Indian corn had sole pos- 
session of the place where the potatoes had so hard 
a struggle against the brier-bushes and the under- 
wood. The forest — dense, impenetrable though it 
seemed — had been pushed far back by the energetic 
arm of man. A garden, bright with flowers, and 
enclosed in a neat picket-fence, fronted the house ; a 
young orchard spread out in rear. I met a farmer 
as I was quitting the scene, returning from church 
with his wife and family. It was on a Sunday, and 
there was nothing in their appearance, save perhaps 
a healthy brown color in their faces, to distinguish 
them from persons of wealth in cities. The wagon 
they were in, their horses, harness, dresses, everything 



226 CANADA. 

about them, in short, indicated comfort and easy cir- 
cumstances. I inquired of the man — who was the 
owner of the property I have just been describing? 
< It is mine, sir,' he replied ; ' I settled on it nine 
years ago, and have, thank God, had tolerable suc- 
cess.' 

" There is, perhaps, no class in the world who live 
better — I mean who have a greater abundance of 
the comforts of life — than men having cleared farms, 
and who know how to make a proper use of them, 
in Upper Canada. The imports of the country show 
that they dress not only well, but in many things 
expensively. You go into a church or meeting-house 
in any part of the province which has been settled 
for fifteen or twenty years, and you are struck at 
once with the fabrics, as well as the style of the 
dresses worn by both sexes, but especially by the 
young. The same shawls, and bonnets, and gowns 
which you see in cities, are worn by the women, 
whilst the coats of the men are undistinguishable 
from those worn by professional men and merchants 
in towns. A circumstance which I witnessed some 
years ago, in travelling from Simcoe to Brantford — 
two towns in the interior of the province — will serve 
to convey an idea of the taste as well as the means 
of enjoyment of these people. At an ordinary Meth- 
odist meeting-house, in the centre of a rural settle- 
ment, and ten miles from a village or town, there 
were tiventy-three pleasure carriages^ double and sin- 
gle, standing in waiting. The occasion was a quar- 
terly meeting, and these were the conveyances of the 
farmers who came to attend it. Yet twenty years 
before, and this was a wilderness; twenty years 
before, and many of these people were working as 
laborers, and were not possessed of a pair of oxen ; 
twenty years before, and these things exceeded even 
their brightest dreams of prosperity. 

" The settler who nobly pushes back the giant 
wilderness, and hews out for himself a home upon 



THE CANADIAN SETTLER. 227 

the conquered territory, has necessarily but a bony 
hand and a rough visage to present to advancing 
civilization. His children, too, are timid, and wild, 
and uncouth. But a stranger comes in, buys the 
little improvement on the next lot to him, has chil- 
dren who are educated, and a wife with refined 
tastes, — for such people mark, in greater or less num- 
bers, every settlement in Upper Canada. The neces- 
sities of the new-comer soon bring about an acquaint- 
ance with the old pioneer. Their families meet — 
timid and awkward enough at first, perhaps; but 
children know not the conventionalities of society, 
and, happily, are governed by their innocence in their 
friendships. So they play together, go to school in 
company ; and thus, imperceptibly to themselves, are 
the tastes and manners of the educated imparted to 
the rude, and the energy and fortitude of the latter 
are infused into their more effeminate companions. 
Manly but ill-tutored success is thus taught how to 
enjoy its gains, whilst respectable poverty is instructed 
how to better its condition. That pride occasionally 
puts itself to inconvenience to prevent these pleasant 
results, my experience of Canada forces me to admit; 
and that the jealousy and vanity of mere success 
sometimes views with unkindness the manner and 
habit of reduced respectability — never perhaps more 
exacting than when it is poorest — I must also ac- 
knowledge. But that the great law of progress, and 
the influence of free institutions, break down these 
exceptional feelings and prejudices, is patent to every 
close observer of Canadian society. Where the edu- 
cated and refined undergo the changes incident to 
laborious occupations, — for the constant use of the 
axe and the plough alters men's feelings as well as 
their appearances, — and where rude industry is also 
changed by the success which gives it the benefit of 
education, it is impossible for the two classes not to 
meet. As the one goes down — at least in its occu- 
pations — it meets the other coming up by reason 



228 CANADA. 

of its successes, and both eventually occupy the same 
pedestal. I have seen this social problem worked 
out over and over again in Upper Canada, and have 
never known the result different. Pride, in America, 
must 'stoop to conquer;' rude industry rises always. 
" The manner of living of the Upper Canadian 
farmer may be summed up in few words. He has 
plenty, and he enjoys it. The native Canadians 
almost universally, and a large proportion of the old 
country people, sit at the same table with their ser- 
vants or laborers. They eat meat twice, and many 
of them thrice a day ; it being apparently more a 
matter of taste than of economy as to the number of 
times. Pork is what they chiefly consume. There 
being a great abundance of fruit, scarcely a cleared 
farm is without an orchard ; and it is to be found 
preserved in various ways on every farmer's table. 
Milk is in great abundance, even in the early settler's 
houses, for where there is little pasture there are sure 
to be large woods, and ' brouse,' or the tops of the 
branches of trees, supply the place of hay. The 
sweetest bread I have eaten in America I liave eaten 
in the farmers' houses of Upper Canada. They 
usually grind the ' shorts ' with the flour for home 
consumption, and as their wheat is among the finest 
in the world, the bread is at once wholesome and 
exceedingly delicious. Were I asked what is the 
characteristic of Canadian farmers, I would unhesi- 
tatingly answer ' Plenty ! ' " 



RECIPROCAL RIGHTS. 229 



CHAPTER XV. 

Reciprocal Rights. — American Ideas of Reciprocity. — The Ad Valorem 
System. — Commercial Improvements. — Trade with America. — The 
Ottawa Route. — The Saskatchewan. — Fertility of the Country. — 
Water Communication. — The Maritime Provinces. — Area and Popu- 
lation. 

The absence of a winter port is an evil to Canada, 
for which no energy and no advantages can compen- 
sate. Although Halifax has a magnificent harbor, 
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia offer but small 
facilities for winter navigation ; and the day seems 
distant when the great railroad of which so much has 
been spoken and written shall open the communica- 
tion between England and the remotest portions of 
the vafet empire which reaches from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific. 

The position of Canada threw her into close rela- 
tions with the United States, and the result of her 
geographical condition was the Reciprocity Treaty, 
which has caused so much discussion and discontent 
on both sides of the St. Lawrence, and which the 
Government of the Federal States has now given 
notice to terminate. 

In March, 1862, the report of the Committee of the 
Executive Council, to which an able paper of Mr. 
Gait, then Finance Minister, had been referred, ad- 
vised that the views and suggestions therein expressed 
by Mr. Gait should be adopted, and that report was 
approved by Lord Monck. Mr. Gait's Report was 
founded on a reference made to him of the report of 
the Committee on Commerce of the House of Rep- 
resentatives at Washington respecting the Reciproc- 
ity Treaty, and of a memorial from the Chamber of 
Commerce of Minnesota. 
11 



230 CANADA. 

The House of Representatives reported in favor of 
a system resembling that of the " Zollverein " as the 
only means of securing the benefits of reciprocal 
trade, and recommended as desirable a uniform sys- 
tem of light-houses, copyrights, postage, patents, 
telegraphs, weights and measures, and coinage. 

This was a favorite scheme of the late Senator 
Douglas ; and if the American Government had ex- 
hibited any desire to diminish the rigors of Morrill 
Tariffs and of State protective enactments, we might 
applaud the liberality of their views and the noble 
candor of their conclusions. They believed that 
" free commercial intercourse between the United 
States and the British North American Provinces, 
developing the natural, geographical, and other ad- 
vantages of each for the good of all, is conducive to 
the present interests of each, and is the proper basis 
of our intercourse for all time to come " — sentiments 
certainly noble, if somewhat vaguely expressed. We 
will see presently how Mr. Gait deals with the prac- 
tical rendering of them by the Federal Government. 
The Reciprocity Treaty, negotiated ))etween Lord 
Elgin and Mr. Marcey in June, 1854, was entered 
into to avoid further misunderstanding in regard to 
the extent of the right of fishing on the coasts of 
British North America, and to regulate the commerce 
and navigation between the respective territories and 
people in such a manner as to render the same recip- 
rocally beneficial and satisfactory. 

The Convention secured to American fishermen the 
liberty of taking, curing, and drying fish on the Brit- 
ish North American coast generally ; the Treaty ex- 
tended to them the liberty to take fish of every kind 
(except shell-fish) along the coast of Canada, New 
Brunswick, Prince Edward's Island, &c., with per- 
mission to land, to dry nets, and cure fish, without 
any restrictions as to distance from shore — reserving 
only the right of private property and the salmon and 
shad fishings in the rivers ; and the same rights were 



RECIPROCAL RIGHTS. 231 

conceded to British subjects on the eastern sea-coasts 
of the United States north of the 3Gth parallel of lati- 
tude. It provided that the following articles should 
be admitted duty free reciprocally : Grain, flour 
and breadstuffs, animals, fresh and salt meat, cotton- 
seed and vegetables, fruit, fish, poultry, hides and 
skins, butter, cheese, tallow, lard, horns, manure, ores, 
coal, stone, slate, pitch, turpentine, timber and lum- 
ber, plants, firs, gypsum, grindstones, dye-stuffs, flax, 
rags, and unmanufactured tobacco. It gave to 
Americans the right to navigate the St. Lawrence 
and the Canadian canals, subject to the tolls, and it 
gave to British subjects the right to navigate Lake 
Michigan ; but it reserved to the British Government 
the right of suspending, on due notice, the privileges 
of Canadian navigation, in which event the right of 
British subjects to navigate Lake Michigan should 
also cease and determine, and the United States 
should have the right of suspending the free import 
and export of the articles specified. But here, it will 
be observed, there was a one-sided reciprocity. The 
Americans received, absolutely, the right of using all 
the canals in Canada from the British Government ; 
the Government of the United States conferred no 
such privilege reciprocally on British subjects. All 
they did — perhaps all they could do in consonance 
with the doctrine of States Rights they are so busily 
engaged at present in destroying — was to engage to 
urge on the State Governments to secure to the sub- 
jects of Her Britannic Majesty the use of the several 
ship-canals on terms of equality with the inhabitants 
of the United States. It was also provided that 
"American lumber floated down to St. John and 
shipped to the United States from New Brunswick 
should be free of duty." This treaty was to remain 
in force for ten years from the date at which it came 
into operation, and further until the expiration of 
twelve months after either of the contracting parties 
gave notice to the other of its wish to terminate the 



232 CANADA. 

same — each of them being at liberty to give notice 
at the end of the ten years, or at any time afterwards. 
This treaty expired on the 11th September, 1864, 
since which time the United States and Great Brit- 
ain have been free to give notice of the termination 
of its provisions, to take effect in twelve months after 
the date of the notice. Of this power, as ah'eady 
stated, the United States Government has availed 
itself. An exception to the operation of the treaty is 
made in the case of Newfoundland, in respect to 
which its provisions hold good till December 12th, 
1865. The State of New York, by its Legislature, 
urged Congress to protect the United States from 
what they denounced as an " unequal and unjust 
system of commerce." They asserted that nearly all 
the articles- which Canada has to sell are admitted into 
the United States free of duty, whilst heavy duties 
are imposed on many articles of American manufac- 
ture, with the intention of excluding them from the 
Canadian market ; and that discriminating tolls and 
duties, in favor of an isolating and exclusive policy 
against American merchants and forwarders, to de- 
stroy the effect of the treaty and in opposition to its 
spirit, have been adopted by Canada ; and on these 
grounds they demanded a change in the system of 
commerce now existing, to protect the interests of 
the United States in the manner intended by the 
treaty. 

The Canadian Minister, in reply, observed that the 
treaty made no mention whatever of the matters com- 
plained of, and, in a very lucid argument, charges 
against the Legislature of the United States the very 
same grounds of complaint as the Committee alleged 
against Canada. No accusation of an infraction of 
the treaty is made, and therefore the subjects treated 
of in the Report affect the commercial relations and 
not the good faith of the contracting parties. The 
Committee accuse Canada of violating the spirit and 
intent of the treaty, by an increase of duties on man- 



AMERICAN IDEAS OF RECIPROCITY. 233 

ufactured articles, by a change in the mode of levying 
duties, and by abolishing tolls on the St. Lawrence 
canals and river; but Mr. Gait contends that the 
treaty had nothing to do with manufactures, but was 
expressly limited to the growth and produce of the 
two countries mentioned in the schedule. Those arti- 
cles not enumerated in it are necessarily excluded 
from its operations, and must be made the subject of 
special legislation between the two States before any 
act of either respecting the mode of their admission 
can be made ground of remonstrance. 

As a proof of the narrow spirit in which these fine 
declaimers about "liberty of commerce and reciprocity 
of trading advantages " have dealt with the treaty, it 
may be mentioned that they imposed duties on planks 
in part planed, tongued, or grooved, and on flour 
ground in Canada from American wiieat, and on 
lumber made in Canada out of American logs. The 
Canadian Government, however, have maintained, 
both against the Americans and the mother-country, 
their right to decide for themselves both as to the 
mode and the extent to which taxation should be im- 
posed. Declamations against a policy of Protection 
come indeed with a bad grace from the United 
States; and Mr. Gait, in suppressed sarcasm and 
irony, shows that their doctrine of Free Trade with 
Canada really means an exclusive protection for them- 
selves against the manufactures of Great Britain. 

If the gentlemen who composed the elaborate Re- 
port, bristling all over with generous sentiments and 
with the expression of the most enlightened and lib- 
eral doctrines, could blush, they might v/ell perform 
that interesting operation when reading Mr. Gait's 
reply. Canada admits the registration of foreign 
vessels without charge ; the United States do not. 
Canada has sought admission to the great lakes for 
coasters; the United States refuse. Canada allows 
American vessels to pass free through her canals ; not 
a Canadian vessel is allowed, even on payment of toll, 



234 CANADA. 

to enter an American canal. The promise in the 
treaty, that the Government of Washington would 
urge on the States the concession of a right to navi- 
gate their canals on equal terms with American sub- 
jects, has not been kept ; at least, there is no trace of 
any effort having been made to induce the State 
Legislatures to relax their present extreme policy, 
which is in strong contrast with the professions of 
their Committee-men. Canada permits foreign goods 
bought in the United States to be imported on the 
payment of duty on the original invoice; the United 
States will not permit similar purchases to be made 
in Canada. Tea imported from Canada is weighted 
with duty of ten per cent., while the duties under 
the Canadian tariff are very much lower than those 
levied in America. The permission to pass goods 
under bond through the States conferred an obvious 
advantage on American railroads ; but, indeed, the 
Committee were fain to admit that the United States 
had not established a fair reciprocity, inasmuch as 
they recommend that reciprocity should be made 
complete. Duties have been imposed in the United 
States for purposes of Protection, and they can 
scarcely bring accusations against Canada until they 
have established a system of duties as low as those 
of Canada. The ad valorem system of Canada, 
against which the Committee protest, is the system 
of the United States ; for tea and sugar there is a 
discriminating duty in favor of American vessels of 
twenty per cent. Duty is levied in Canada solely for 
purposes of revenue ; and though this policy, which 
has led the late minister and his predecessors to re- 
duce tolls and customs-dues to a minimum, has 
alarmed the canal and ship-owners and railway direc- 
tors of New York, it is viewed with approbation by 
the great Western States. 

" It is," says Mr. Gait, " a singular charge to make 
of discrimination on our part against them, that we 
do not permit one section of our public works to be 



INCREASE OF CUSTOM DUTIES. 235 

used for purposes exclusively beneficial to them, 
when they absolutely, and contrary to the engage- 
ments of the treaty, debar any Canadian vessel from 
entering their waters, if we except Lake Michigan, 
specially mentioned in the treaty. Snrely Canada 
does enough for them when she places them precisely 
on the same footing as she does her own vessels ; 
and it is a novel doctrine that because the whole St. 
Lawrence is made free, therefore an injury is done to 
the New York route. The remedy is simple, and in 
their own hands ; let them do as Canada has done 
— repeal the tolls on their canals, and admit Cana- 
dian vessels to ply upon them — and then the desired 
state of 'fair competition' will have arisen. But 
the Committee must have formed but a low estimate 
of the intelligence of their own people in the West, 
when they make it a subject of complaint against 
Canada that she has opened the St. Lawrence freely 
to their trade. The undersigned apprehends that the 
inhabitants of those great States will be much more 
likely to demand from their own Government an 
equitable application of their own customs-laws, so as 
to permit them to import direct via the St. Lawrence, 
and to buy in the Canadian market, rather than to 
join with the Committee in requiring a return to a 
system by which the entire West has hitherto been 
held in vassalasre to the State of New York." 

Mr. Gait argues that an increase of customs-duties 
does not, necessarily, injuriously affect foreign trade 
within certain limits, and that those limits have not 
been exceeded in Canada. Formerly the cost of 
British goods in Canada was much enhanced, owing 
to natural causes, whilst Canadian producers ob- 
tained a minimum price for their exports. The duty 
was then generally 2| per cent., but the price was 
enormous ; and the Canadian suffered, pro tcmtOj in 
his means to purchase them. Suppose the duties, 
increased five per cent, were to produce a reduction 
of ten per cent, on other charges, " the benefit," says 



236 CANADA. 

Mr. Gait, " would accrue equally to the British man- 
ufacturer and to the consumer ; the consumer would 
pay five per cent, more to the Government, but ten 
per cent, less to the merchant and forwarder." As Mr. 
Gait considers the principle of Canadian finance and 
customs to be misapprehended in England as well as 
in the United States, it may be as well to give his 
own words : — 

" The Government has increased the duties for 
the purpose of enabling them to meet the interest 
on the public works necessary to reduce all the 
various charges upon the imports and exports of the 
country. Light-houses have been built, and steam- 
ships subsidized, to reduce the charges for freight and 
insurance ; the St. Lawrence has been deepened, 
and the canals constructed, to reduce the cost of 
inland navigation to a minimum; railways have 
been assisted, to give speed, safety, and permanency 
to trade interrupted by the severity of winter. All 
these improvements have been undertaken with the 
twofold object of diminishing the cost to the con- 
sumer of what he imports, and of increasing the 
net result of the labor of the country when finally 
realized in Great Britain. These great improvements 
could not be effected without large outlays ; and the 
burden necessarily had to be put either through 
direct taxation, or by customs-duties on the goods im- 
ported, or upon the trade by excessive tolls corre- 
sponding with the rates previously charged. Direct 
taxation was the medium employed, through the 
local municipalities, for the construction of all minor 
local works — roads, court-houses, and jails, educa- 
tion, and the vast variety of objects required in a 
newly settled country ; and this source of taxation 
has thus been used to the full extent which is be- 
lieved practicable without producing serious discon- 
tent. No one can, for a moment, argue that, in an 
enlightened age, any Government could adopt such 
a clumsy mode of raising money as to maintain 



COMMERCIAL IMPROVEMENT. 237 

excessive rates of tolls; nor would it have attained 
the object, as American channels of trade were 
created simultaneously, that would then have defied 
competition.. The only effect, therefore, of attempt- 
ing such course, would have been to give the United 
States the complete control of our markets, and 
virtually to exclude British goods. The only other 
course was therefore adopted, and the producer has 
been required to pay, through increased customs- 
duties, for the vastly greater deductions he secured 
through the improvements referred to. What then 
has been the result to the British manufacturer ? 
His goods are, it is true, in many cases subjected to 
20 per cent, instead of 2J- per cent., but the cost to 
the consumer has been diminished in a very much 
greater degree ; and the aggregate of cost, original 
price, duty, freight, and charges, are now very much 
less than when the duty was 2^ per cent., and con- 
sequently the legitimate protection to the home- 
manufacturer is to this extent diminished. Nor is 
this all : the interest of the British manufacturer is 
not merely that he shall be able to lay down his 
goods at the least cost to the consumer, but equally 
is he interested in the ability of the consumer to buy. 
Now, this latter point is attained precisely through 
the same means which have cheapened the goods. 
The produce of Canada is now increased in value 
exactly in proportion to the saving on the cost of de- 
livering it in the market of consumption. 

" If the aggregate of cost to the consumer re- 
mained the same now as it was before the era of 
canals and railroads in Canada, what possible 
difference would it make to the British manufacturers 
whether the excess over the cost in Great Britain 
were paid to the Government or to merchants and 
forwarders ? It would certainly not in any way 
affect the question of the protection to home-manu- 
facturers ; but when it can be clearly shown that by 
the action of the Government, in raising funds 
11* 



238 CANADA. 

through increased customs - duties, the cost to the 
consumer is nov/ very much less, upon what ground 
can the British manufacturer complain that these 
duties have been restrictive on his trade? 

" The undersigned might truly point to the rapid 
increase in the population and wealth of Canada, 
arising from its policy of improvement, whereby its 
ability of consumption has been so largely increased. 
He might also show that these improvements have, 
in a great degree, also tended to the rapid advance 
of the Western States, and to their increased ability 
to purchase British goods. He might point to the 
fact that the grain supplied from the Western States 
and Canada keeps down prices in Great Britain, 
and therefore enables the British manufacturer to 
produce still cheaper. But he prefers resting his 
case, as to the propriety of imposing increased cus- 
toms-duties, solely on the one point, tli^t through 
that increase the cost of British manufactured goods, 
including duty, has been reduced to the Canadian 
consumer, and that consequently the increase has in 
its results, viewing the whole trade, tended to an 
augmentation of the market for British goods." 

In a tabular statement it is shown that the average 
amount of duty levied on imports from the United 
States in 1861 is the same as the average of the 
previous twelve years, that the variations have been 
very slight, and that the rate per cent, was less than 
half what it had been a few years before, whilst 
American trade has been steadily increasing. Under 
the operation of the treaty, the imports from the 
United States, in 1861, were nearly trebled, and the 
exports from Canada to the United States were 
nearly quadrupled ; the whole amount of trade in 
1851 being, in round numbers, 12,500,000 dollars, 
which was increased to 24,000,000 dollars in 1854, 
and to 35,500,000 dollars in 1861. These advan- 
tages may be still further extended without injury to 
either nation or to the just claims of Great Britain to 



THE OTTAWA KOUTE. 239 

an equality in the Canadian market ; and Mr. Gait 
professed himself quite ready for the abolition of the 
coasting laws on inland waters — of all discrimina- 
tion as to nationality in respect of vessels — the free 
import of wooden wares, agricultural implements, 
machinery, and books, the assimilation of the patent- 
laws ; but he totally opposes the project of a Zoll- 
verein, on the ground that it would be inconsistent 
with the maintenance of connection with Great 
Britain, inasmuch as Canada would be called upon 
to tax goods of British manufacture, while she 
admitted those of the United States free. 

" Great Britain is," he observes, " the market for 
Canadian produce to a far gi'eater extent than the 
United States." The United States would neces- 
sarily impose her views on the Zollverein, and " the 
result would be," says Mr. Gait, " a tariff, not as 
now, based on the simple wants of Canada, but upon 
those of a country engaged in a colossal war." It 
must be regretted, notwithstanding Mr. Gait's argu- 
ments, that the Canadian tariff is so high ; but if 
she be called upon to incur a fresh debt for the pur- 
poses of defence, it is more likely that it will be 
increased rather than diminished. In connection 
with the relations of Canada and the West to the 
United States, the opening of new water-ways and 
roads becomes of paramount interest and import- 
ance. 

In March, 1863, a Select Committee was ap- 
pointed by the Legislative Assembly to investigate 
the subject of a navigable line between Montreal 
and Lake Huron, by the Ottawa and Matawan 
Kivers, Lake Nipissing, and French River. That 
Committee reported that there were no engineering 
difficulties to interfere with the opening of the route 
for vessels of every class up to the draught of twelve 
feet, and that it would shorten the line to Chicago 
350 miles, the exact difference in favor of the Ottawa 
communication from Montreal to Mackinaw being 



240 CANADA. 

68 miles. In point of time there would be a reduc- 
tion of 47 hours. The trade between the Western 
States and the sea has increased to such an extent 
during the last four years, that 120,000,000 of bushels 
of wheat and grain stood in need of transport, ac- 
cording to the last calculation ; and even with its 
present communications, Montreal is second only to 
New York as a grain - exporting port, the quantity 
shipped last year from it being over 15,000,000 of 
bushels. The Ottawa route would actually be the 
shortest line of communication between the ports on 
Lake Michigan and New York itself by 150 miles, 
when the Champlain Canal shall have been made, 
and the Northern Canal enlarged. 

The tract through which the proposed line would 
pass, exceeding in area the whole of the five New 
England States, is covered with a wealth of timber 
surpassing belief; and the forestless prairies would 
furnish a market valuable as gold itself to the lum- 
berer. Vessels going down and discharging their 
cargoes would return with cargoes of timber, the 
demand for which in the West is so great that the 
city of Chicago consumes alone 100,000/. worth 
in the year. Canadian pines would be in demand 
to construct the new cities which are rising in the 
Prairie State, and to keep the hearth-fires alight 
through their rigid winters. The effect of such a 
line in developing local traffic, agricultural improve- 
ment, commercial enterprise, and the spread of civil- 
ization, cannot be over estimated. In reference to 
the military advantages to be derived from its con- 
struction, the Committee makes but a meagre refer- 
ence; but it is obvious that by securing such a route, 
far removed from a foreign frontier, between the sea 
and the western lakes, the means of defence and of 
transport in war would be very much strengthened 
and improved. 

The St. Lawrence canals can be destroyed, as 
Mr. Chamley observes, by the Americans, without 



THE SASKATCHEWAN. 241 

their being obliged to land a man in Canada; whilst 
by the Ottawa route gunboats could proceed from 
the St. Lawrence to Lake Huron in less time than 
they would now require to get to Lake Erie. It is 
not to be overlooked, however, that the higher lati- 
tudes through which the canal would run, expose the 
waters to a longer frost and necessary cessation of 
traffic. The advantages of the route to New York 
and to other Northeastern States of America, can 
only be gained by completing the proposed Cookna- 
woogo Canal, between the St. Lawrence and Lake 
Champlain, and it is doubtful whether the jealousy 
of the Americans would not prevent their furthering 
a project which would confer great benefits on the 
Provinces, even though their refusing to do so might 
deprive them of certain advantages. This line would, 
in fact, give us or the Canadians an admirable inte- 
rior communication, and at the same time confer 
military, political, and commercial benefits on the 
Provinces, the extent of which cannot be easily fore- 
seen. 

Mr. Gait admits that there may be jealousies, 
though he protests there should not be, and calls to 
mind the opposition of Mohawk Dutchmen, the 
Frenchmen of Detroit, and others, to the Erie Canal. 
If the plans for improving the communications which 
have been suggested should ever be developed, the 
valley of Red River would be reached without much 
difficulty, and land as good as that in the unsettled 
portions of Iowa and Minnesota would be opened to 
the British emigrant. 

In the valleys of the Saskatchewan and Assini- 
boine, Canada possesses a vast northwest of her 
own, enjoying a mild climate, which contains, ac- 
cording to one of the witnesses whose opinion is 
cited by the Committee, 500,000 square miles of fer- 
tile land, capable of sustaining a population of nearly 
30,000,000 of people. 

It has been ascertained beyond doubt, that the 



242 CANADA. 

tract between the North and South Saskatchewan 
on the east is exceedingly fertile, and that no intense 
cold prevails throughout an enormous region of rich 
prairies on cretaceous and tertiary deposits. It is 
scarcely possible for us to conceive what an enor- 
mous expanse of fertile land lies to the east of the 
Rocky Mountains, about the sources of those rivers ; 
but there are too many witnesses of unmistakable 
veracity to render us sceptical concerning the beauty 
and capabilities of these regions. Could the poor 
emigTant be carried to these fertile districts, instead 
of sinking into the rowdyism of American cities, or 
beating down the rate of wages by competition, he 
would find at least a comfortable subsistence, even 
if he were unable at once to obtain a profitable 
market for his labors. 

Father de Smet, the missionary, a man whose 
name is a tower of strength and faith, describes a 
district which makes us wonder that poverty should 
ever be known in Europe, and corroborates the glow- 
ing picture of Sir George Simpson, — a soil and 
climate better suited for agriculture than that of To- 
ronto — a region abounding in game of all kinds, 
rivers and lakes swarming with fish, plains covered 
with buffaloes — seams of coal — delicious wild 
fruits — forests of pine, cypress, poplar, and aspen. 
Even at Edmonton, potatoes, wheat and barley, 
corn and beans, are produced in abundance. "Are 
these vast and innumerable fields of hay," asks 
Father de Smet, " forever destined to be consumed 
by fire, or perish in wintry snows ? How long shall 
these superb forests be the haunts of wild beasts? 
Are these abundant mines of coal, lead, sulphur, 
iron, copper, and saltpetre doomed to remain forever 
valueless ? No ; the day must come when the hand 
of labor shall give them value, and stirring and en- 
terprising people are destined ere long to fill this 
void ; the wild beasts will give place to domestic 
• animals ; flocks and herds will graze on the beauti- 



FERTILITY OF THE COUNTRY. 243 

ful meadows, and the mountain-sides and valleys 
will swarm with life." 

Before this picture, however, be realized, some 
communication must be opened east or west between 
the community and the outer world; and if the Brit- 
ish Government does not take some steps to secure a 
settlement of these regions by its own subjects, the 
irresistible agency of American emigration will erase 
mere lines upon the map, and determine the question 
of nationality beyond the power of appeal or altera- 
tion. It is agreeable to admit that the inhabitants 
of the State of Minnesota have not hitherto evinced 
any design of raising difficulties as to jurisdiction, or 
of disturbing the relations between the two Govern- 
ments. In fact, the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, 
in 1862, presented a strong memorial against the 
proposal to suspend or abrogate the provisions of the 
Reciprocity Treaty. This memorial says : — 

*' Central British America, including an inhabita- 
ble area of 300,000 square miles, and extending 
northwest of Minnesota to the Rocky Mountains, 
will probably be organized as a crown colony of 
England, with the seat of government at Selkirk. 
There is good reason to believe that a bill for this 
purpose will become an Act of Parliament at the 
session now impending. British Columbia, on the 
Pacific coast, having received a similar organization 
in 1858, the establishment of the province of Central 
British America will go far to realize the hope so 
gracefully expressed three years since from the throne 
of England: — 'That her Majesly's dominions in 
North America may ultimately be peopled in an un- 
broken chain from the Atlantic to the Pacific, by a 
loyal and industrious population of subjects of the 
British crown.' 

" Minnesota, with the cooperation of the Govern- 
ment at Washington, has relied with confidence 
upon the probability of such a colonization of the 
fertile valleys which stretch beyond the international 



244 CANADA. 

boundary, from the lakes of Superior and Winnepeg, 
or the western limits of Canada, to the Pacific col- 
ony of British Columbia. Our mails, our trains of 
regular transportation, and our steam-vessels on the 
Red River of the North, are already provided as im- 
portant links of international communication from 
Toronto to St. Paul, and thence to Fort Garry. The 
projected railroads of Minnesota, with extensive grants 
of land from Congress in behalf of their construc- 
tion, harmonize in a north Vv^estern trend to the val 
leys of the Red River of the North, and the still more 
remote Saskatchewan. Our whole commercial fu- 
ture has been projected in concert with the victo- 
ries of peace, even more renowned than war, of 
which we still hope to witness the achievement in 
northwest America, irrespective of the imaginary 
line of an international frontier. 

"Animated by these expectations, w^hich the march 
of events has hitherto justified, we invoke the 'sober 
second thought ' of the country upon the subject of 
our continental policy. With the suppression of the 
Southern rebellion ; with dispassionate discussions 
by all the parties interested ; with the happy accord 
of minds like Cobden in England and Chase in 
America upon the best methods of revenue ; and 
lastly, with the lessons and suggestions of the next 
three years, a treaty, eminently deserving the desig- 
nation of a reciprocity treaty, will probably be sub- 
mitted to the Congress of 1864." 

When the Committee of Commerce, to which the 
Legislature of New York referred its petition against 
the Reciprocity Treaty, made their report, they gave 
expression to very different sentiments ; and enlarged 
on the magnitude of the present possessions of the 
British Crown on the American continent, and the 
probable grandeur of their future, in a manner which 
indicated certainly the existence of a feeling not far 
removed from jealousy. With great truth they say, 
that the value of the British North American posses- 



AREA OF THE BRITISH POSSESSIONS. 245 

sions is seldom appreciated : stretching from the 
Atlantic tx) the Pacific, they contain an area of at 
least 3,478,380 miles. The isothermal line of 60 
degrees for summer rises on the interior plains of 
this continent as high as the 61st parallel, — its aver- 
age position in Europe. And a favorable comparison 
may also be traced for winter and other seasons in 
the year. Then, elevated by the subject, and warm* 
ing by degrees, the Committee draw a glowing pic- 
ture of this enormous empire. " Spring opens simul- 
taneously," they say, " on the plains, which stretch 
for 1200 miles, from St. Paul's to the Mackenzie 
River. Westward are countries of still milder cli- 
mate, now scarcely inhabited, but of incalculable 
value in the future. Eastward are the small settle- 
ments, yet distant from the other abodes of civiliza- 
tion, enjoying the rich lands and pleasant climate of 
the Red River." It may well surprise the inhabitants 
of these isles, who have not got 100 miles of natural 
navigable rivers in the three kingdoms, to learn that 
this same Red River is capable of steamboat navi- 
gation for 400 miles. 

The following extract from this Report gives per- 
haps the best idea of the British Possessions in a few 
words which can be presented to the reader : — 

" It is asserted by those who add personal knowl- 
edge of the subject to scientific investigation, that 
the habitable but undeveloped area of the British 
Possessions westerly from Lake Superior and Hud- 
son's Bay, comprises sufficient territory to make 
twenty-five States equal in size to Illinois. Bold as 
this assertion is, it meets with confirmation in the 
isothermal charts of Blodgett, the testimony of Rich- 
ardson, Simpson, Mackenzie, the maps published by 
the Government of Canada, and the recent explora- 
tions of Professor Hind, of Toronto. 

" North of a line drawn from the northern limit of 
Lake Superior to the coast at the southern limit of 
Labrador exists a vast region, possessing in its best 



246 CANADA. 

parts a climate barely endurable, and reaching into 
the Arctic regions. This country, even more cold, 
desolate, and barren on the Atlantic coast than in 
the interior latitudes, becoming first known to trav- 
ellers, has given character in public estimation to the 
whole north. 

" Another line, drawn from the northern limit of 
Minnesota to that of Maine, includes nearly all the 
inhabited portion of Canada, a province extending 
opposite the Territory of Dakota and States of Min- 
nesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, 
New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, 
possessing a climate identical with that of our North- 
ern States. 

" The ' Maritime Provinces ' on the Atlantic coast 
include New Brunswick, Nova -Scotia, Prince Ed- 
ward's Island, and Newfoundland. Geographically 
they may be regarded as a northeasterly prolonga- 
tion of the New England system. Unitedly they 
include an area of at least 86,000 square miles, and 
are capable of supporting a larger population than 
that at present existing in the United States or Great 
Britain. They are equal in extent to the united 
territory of Holland, Greece, Belgium, Portugal, and 
Switzerland. 

" New Brunswick is 190 miles in length and 150 
in breadth. Its interests are inseparably connected 
with those of the adjacent State of Maine. It has 
an area of 22,000,000 acres, and a sea-coast 400 miles 
in extent, and abounding in harbors. Its population 
some years ago numbered 210,000, whose chief occu- 
pations are connected with ship-building, the fisheries, 
and the timber trade. Commissioners appointed by 
the Government of Great Britain affirm that it is im- 
possible to speak too highly of its climate, soil, and 
capabilities. Few countries are so well wooded and 
watered. On its unreclaimed surface is an abundant 
stock of the finest timber ; beneath are coal-fields. 
The rivers, lakes, and sea-coast abound with fish. 



THE MARITIME PROVINCES. 247 

" Nova Scotia, a long peninsula, united to the 
American continent by an isthmus only fifteen miles 
wide, is 280 miles in length. The numerous inden- 
tations on its coast form harbors unsurpassed in any 
part of the world. Including Cape Breton, it has an 
area of 12,000,000 acres. Wheat, and the usual ce- 
reals and fruits of the Northern States, flourish in 
many parts of it. Its population in 1851 was de- 
clared by the census to be 276,117. Besides possess- 
ing productive fisheries and agricultural resources, it 
is rich in mineral wealth, having beneath its surface 
coal, iron, manganese, gypsum, and gold. 

" The province of Prince Edward's Island is sepa- 
rated from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia by 
straits only nine miles in width. It is crescent- 
shaped, 130 miles in length, and at its broadest part 
is 34 miles wide. It is a level region, of a more mod- 
erate temperature than that of Lower Canada, and 
well adapted to agricultural purposes. Its population 
in 1848 was 62,678. 

" The island of Newfoundland has a sea-coast 1000 
miles in extent. It has an area of 23,040,000 acres, 
of which only a small portion is cultivated. Its spring 
is late, its summer short, but the frost of winter is 
less severe than in many parts of our own Northern 
States and Territories. It is only 1665 miles distant 
from Ireland. It possesses a large trade with various 
countries, including Spain, Portugal, Italy, the West 
Indies, and the Brazils. 

" The chief wealth of Newfoundland and of the 
Labrador coast is to be found in their extensive and 
inexhaustible fisheries, in which the other Provinces 
also partake. The future products of these, when 
properly developed by human ingenuity and industry, 
defy human calculation. The Gulf Stream is met 
near the shores of Newfoundland by a current from 
the Polar basin, vast deposits are formed by the meet- 
ing of the opposing waters, the great submarine 
islands, known as " The Banks," are formed ; and 



248 CANADA. 

the rich pastures created in Ireland by the warm and 
humid influences of the Gulf Stream are compensated 
by the ' rich sea-pastures of Newfoundland.' The 
fishes of warm or tropical waters, inferior in quality 
and scarcely capable of preservation, cannot form an 
article of commerce like those produced in inexhaust- 
ible quantities in these cold and shallow seas. The 
abundance of these marine resources is unequalled in 
any portion of the globe. 

" Canada, rather a nation than a province in any 
common acceptation of the term, includes not less 
than 346,803 square miles of territory, independently 
of its Northwestern Possessions, not yet open for set- 
tlement. It is three times as large as Great Britain 
and Ireland, and more than three times as large as 
Prussia. It intervenes between the Great Northwest 
and the Maritime Provinces, and consists chiefly of 
a vast territorial projection into the territory of the 
United States, although it possesses a coast of nearly 
1000 miles on the river and gulf of the St. Lawrence, 
where fisheries of cod, herring, mackerel, and salmon 
are carried on successfully. Valuable fisheries exist 
also in its lakes. It is rich in metallic ore and in the 
resources of its forests. Large portions of its terri- 
tory are peculiarly favorable to the growth of wheat, 
barley, and the other cereals of the north. During 
the life of the present generation, or the last quarter 
of a century, its population has increased more than 
fourfold, or from 582,000 to 2,500,000. 

" The population of all the provinces may be fairly 
estimated as numbering 3,500,000. Many of the in- 
habitants are of French extraction, and a few German 
settlements exist ; but two thirds of the people of the 
provinces owe their origin either to the United States 
or to the British Islands, whose language we speak, 
and who ' people the world with men industrious and 
free.' 

" The climate and soil of these Provinces and Pos- 
sessions, seemingly less indulgent than those of trop- 



CLIMATE AND SOIL. 249 

ical regions, are precisely those by which the skill, 
energy, and virtues of the hunaan race are best devel- 
oped. Nature there demands thought and labor 
from man as conditions of his existence, but yields 
abundant rewards to wise industry. Those causes 
which, in our age of the world, determine the wealth 
of nations are those which render man most active; 
and it cannot be too often or too closely remembered 
in discussing subjects so vast as these, where the 
human mind may be misled if it attempts to compre- 
hend them in their boundless variety of detail, that 
sure and safe guides in the application of political 
economy, and to our own prosperity, are to be found 
in the simple principles of morality and justice, be- 
cause they alone are true alike in minute and great 
affairs, at all times and in every place." 



250 CANADA. 



CHAPTER XVL 

The "Ashburton Capitulation." — Boundaries of Quebec. — Arbitration in 
1831. — Lord Ashburton's Mission. — The Questions in Dispute. — " The 
Sea" V. "The Atlantic." — American Diplomatists. — Franklin's Red 
Line. — Compromise. — The Maps. — Maine. — Damage to Canada. — 
Mr. Webster's Defence. — His Opinion of the Road. — Value of the 
Heights. — Our Share of Equivalents. — Value of Rouse's Point. — 
Vermont. — New Hampshire. 

It was by the celebrated Treaty of Washington, 
August 9th, 1842, that the boundary- line between 
the British possessions in Canada and the State of 
Maine in the territories of the United States, was set- 
tled and determined. That treaty has been some- 
times spoken of as the "Ashburton Capitulation." 
The story of the two maps which played so distin- 
guished a part in the negotiations, is tolerably well 
known, and has formed a subject of many discussions 
which have now settled down into fixed convictions. 
By many, if not by most Americans, acquainted with 
the subject, it is believed that Mr. Webster did a 
very smart thing. Englishmen, similarly instructed, 
believe their country to have been cheated by the 
great American elocutionist. Canadians are of opin- 
ion that they have suffered an irreparable injury at 
the hands of, or through the weakness of, those ap- 
pointed to guard their interests by the Imperial Gov- 
ernment. The Treaty of Paris, in 1783, did not 
define the northeastern boundary of the United 
States; it merely declared that the boundary was 
drawn along the highlands which divide the rivers 
that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence 
from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean. If 
we had had at that time the knowledge of geography 
and geology, with respect to the basin of the St. 
Lawrence, which, thanks to the labors of the United 



BOUNDARIES OF QUEBEC. 251 

States' engineers and of Sir William Logan, we now 
possess, there would not have been much difficulty 
in fixing on the real line, as there could not well be 
any dispute respecting the exact line of highlands 
from which the rivers flowing into the St. Lawrence 
came, and from the other side of which the water- 
shed was towards the Atlantic Ocean. Tons of 
pamphlets, years of controversy, and thousands of 
pounds might have been spared, not to speak of much 
national animosity. 

It may be remarked here, that the difficulty of rec- 
onciling States' Rights with Imperial Federal policy 
was foreshadowed in the original disputes which 
took place at the time of the treaty adjustment. The 
Treaty speaks of the " boundaries between the pos- 
sessions of Her Britannic Majesty in North America 
and the territories of the United States ; " but the 
State of Maine in its vehement protest against the 
line of the King of the Netherlands, assumed the lan- 
guage and the port of an independent Power. Mr. 
Thomas CoUey Grattan, in his work, " Civilized 
America," has collected an immense amount of in- 
formation, and has drawn up an argument on the 
subject, which prove beyond a doubt, even without 
collateral aid, that the line yielded by Lord Ashbur- 
ton was not that which was meant by the framers of 
the Treaty of 1783. Let us consider how the case 
stood. 

In 1763 the French possessions in North America 
were ceded to Great Britain, and in the October of 
that year a royal proclamation defined the bounda- 
ries of the government of Quebec, " bounded on the 
Labrador coast by the river St. John, which falls into 
the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and from there by a 
line drawn from the head of that river through the 
Lake of St. John to the south end of the Lake Nip- 
issing, from whence the said line, crossing the river 
St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain in 45 degrees 
of north latitude, passes along the highlands which 



252 CANADA. 

divide the rivers that empty themselves into the said 
river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the 
sea, and also along the north coast of the Bay of 
Chaleurs and the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence 
to Cape Rosiere, and from thence crossing the mouth 
of the river St. Lawrence by the west end of the 
island of Anticosti, terminates in the aforesaid Lake 
of St. John." It is fortunate enough that we have 
no neighbors to raise any question about " the line 
drawn through the Lake of St. John to the south 
end of the Lake Ni pissing." 

Previous to the Treaty of Independence only one 
Act was passed bearing upon the southern boundary 
of Canada. The Quebec Act of 1774 draws its 
boundaries between the province of Quebec and the 
colonies of Nova Scotia and Massachusetts, in 
words nearly the same as those of the Proclamation 
of 1763. When the State of Massachusetts and 
the Sate of Maine were acknowledged to be " free, 
sovereign, and independent," by the Treaty of 1783, 
the contracting parties appeared to have defined 
the boundary-line with tolerable exactitude. They 
wished to prevent disputes between the United 
States and the colonies, and therefore the bounda- 
ries were constituted " from the northwest angle of 
Nova Scotia, — viz. that angle which is formed by 
a line drawn due north from the source of the St. 
Croix River to the highlands, along the said high- 
lands which divide those rivers that empty them- 
selves into the St. Lawrence from those which fall 
into the Atlantic Ocean, — to the north-westernmost 
head of Connecticut River east, by a line to be drawn 
along the middle of the river St. Croix from its 
mouth in the Bay of Fundy to its source, and from 
its source directly north to the aforesaid highlands 
which divide the rivers which fall into the Atlantic 
Ocean from those which fall into the river St. Law- 
rence, comprehending all highlands within twenty 
leagues of any harbor of the United States, and 



THE DISPUTED BOUNDARY. 253 

lying between lines to be drawn due east from the 
points where the aforesaid boundaries between Nova 
Scotia on the one part, and East Florida on the 
other, shall respectively touch the Bay of Fundy and 
the Atlantic Ocean, except such highlands as now 
are, or heretofore have been, within the limits of the 
said province of Nova Scotia." 

The northwest angle of Nova Scotia thus be- 
comes a point of consequence — upon the determi- 
nation of it rests the true line. The British maintain 
that the angle is contained at the point " where the 
line due north from the river St. Croix touches the 
highlands at a point about 100 miles south of the 
point claimed by the United States." The Ameri- 
cans argue that the northwest angle was " con- 
siderably nearer to the St. Lawrence, at a spot 
145 miles north of the source of the St. Croix." In 
1794 Commissioners were appointed to determine 
" where a line drawn due north from the St. Croix 
would intersect a line of highlands corresponding 
with those mentioned in the Treaty of 1783." The 
umpire called in by the Commissioners fixed on the 
most northern point of the river as the place from 
which the line to the highlands was to be drawn, and 
the result was that the line so drawn did not strike 
the highlands which we held to be those meant by 
the treaty, but passing them at a distance of twenty 
miles on the west, came to an isolated mountain 
called Mars Hill, from which the Americans desired 
to prolong it northwards beyond the river St. John 
to the highlands above the source of the Reste- 
gouche ; but the British Commissioners insisted that 
the line should not proceed further north, and that 
the highlands which ran west from near that point to 
the head of the Connecticut Kiver should form the 
next boundary-line. 

Events of greater importance for a time prevented 
any attempt to adjust a question which promised, 
however, no slight difficulty in time to come. Then 

12 



254 CANADA. 

war broke out between the United States and Great 
Britain ; but the Peace of 1814 rendered it neces- 
sary to renew the attempt to define the boundaries 
of the two States. The Com nnissi oners appointed 
by the Treaty of Ghent were not more fortunate 
than their predecessors ; and it was thirteen- years 
after the signing of that treaty before the Govern- 
ments of the two counti'ies arranged a convention, 
to carry out the provision made by an article in the 
Treaty for the appointment of a referee in case of 
disagreement. The King of the Netherlands, who 
accepted the office of arbiter in 1831, delivered his 
award, which, taking the line drawn north from the 
St. Croix to Mars Hill, passed beyond it to the river 
St. John, whence it took the course of the river west- 
ward, inside the line claimed by the United States 
to the head of the Connecticut River. This com- 
promise was identical with the actual line estab- 
lished by the Treaty of 1842, except on the western 
side, where the line fixed by the King and that 
claimed by the United States are the same. The 
King's line approximates much more closely to the 
United States' line than it does to that which we 
claim ; however, the Americans refused to accept it, 
on the grounds that the King had no right to go be- 
yond the matter referred to Mm of determining 
which of the two lines was right, and that he had 
exceeded his province in proposing a line which had 
not been referred to him by either of the parties. 

Eleven years passed in unavailing endeavors to 
adjust a question which rose into the highest rank 
of diplomatic difficulties. Lord Ashburton, the head 
of the commercial house of Baring, whose relations 
with American commerce were supposed to be likely 
to recommend him to American statesmen, was dis- 
patched in 1842 to determine the boundary, in con- 
cert with Mr. Webster. These gentlemen were as- 
sisted by seven Commissioners from Maine and Mas- 
sachusetts. The author of a pamphlet of very great 



THE QUESTION IN DISPUTE. 255 

ability, quoted by Mr. Grattan, arrived at the conclu- 
sion that the line desigtiated in the Proclamation of 
1763, is identical with that claimed by the United 
States, and that the line indicated in the treaty of 
1783 is almost the same as that claimed by Great 
Britain. He argued that it was clearly intended to 
create a new boundary, because Mr. Townsend said 
so, and Lord North repeated the statement in Par- 
liament. He maintained that the variations in the 
wording of the treaty from that of the proclamation 
were specially introduced to show that a new boun- 
dary was intended, and that if it had not been so, 
the description in the treaty would have been the 
same as it was in the proclamation ; and he then 
proceeded further to contend, with greater force of 
reasoning, that the proclamation boundary, although 
it might have adequately defined the limits of a 
province, would have been obviously unsuitable as 
between two independent nations, because it would 
cut off communication between two portions of the 
territory of one of the Powers, and give it to another 
independent State. He further asserted, that all 
negotiations and projects for peace on the part of 
the United States were based on the supposition 
that England would demand a new line, and that 
Congress never contemplated an adherence to the 
Proclamation of 1763. All the reasoning of the 
pamphleteer in support of these propositions is dis- 
tinguished by acuteness, and inclines the mind to 
accept them with confidence ; and he is not less 
happy in his argument that the Madawaska River 
is distinct from the river St. John — that it is a 
tributary, not a branch, of that stream. 

The question as to the range of highlands meant 
by the treaties can only be settled by analytical rea- 
soning, which, in relation to matters of fact of the 
kind under dispute, is satisfactory only to those who 
direct their own course of argument. There are two 
ranges of highlands dividing the rivers which flow 



256 CANADA. 

into the St. Lawrence and those which empty them- 
selves into the Atlantic; the first, running from the 
sources of the Connecticut towards the Bay of Cha- 
leurs, certainly separates rivers emptying into the St. 
Lawrence from those emptying into the sea; but 
the second line, starting from the same mountainous 
germ at the sources of the Connecticut, branching 
off from the first range at a point about eighty miles 
from its commencement, takes a southern course 
towards the head of the St. Croix, and divides the 
rivers which empty themselves into the St. Lawrence 
from those which flow into the Atlantic Ocean. It 
is contended on one side, with much force of reason- 
ing and probability, that the highlands specified in 
the Treaty of 1783 are those of the southern range. 
It was necessary of course to fix upon some great 
natural features in a district vast in extent and un- 
known to all but the Red men and the hunter. Rivers 
and the summit level between two great watersheds 
would be obviously selected. It was the object of 
England to secure free communication betv/een all 
parts of her American territory, and, of course, be- 
tween Canada and Nova Scotia. The Americans 
proposed the line of the St. John, which was at once 
rejected. That being the case, it is difficult to con- 
ceive how they could go back and propose, as a line 
more likely to meet the views of England, the high- 
lands of the northern range close to the St. Law- 
rence, which would throw the greatest difficulties in 
the way of the communication which it was a vital 
point for England to secure. It will have been ob- 
served that the words " the Sea " and the "Atlantic 
Ocean" are used in the treaties, and it certainly is 
not easy to comprehend how the Americans can 
maintain that these terms have an identical meaning, 
if the de.-cription of the maps which they had before 
them at the time is correct. The Connecticut, the 
Penobscot, and the Kennebec, can be considered as 
flowing into the Atlantic Ocean from one range of 



THE SEA VERSUS THE ATLANTIC. 257 

highlands only, and it is equally plain that the other, 
or northern, range was that which was meant as the 
highlands from which rivers flowed into the " sea." 

It has been urged, ingeniously and truly, that the 
words ".The Sea" give a larger range of boundary 
than the words " The Atlantic ; " and that therefore 
the boundary which depended on a reference to the 
Atlantic, was intended to have a smaller extent than 
that which was made to depend upon the Sea. The 
Atlantic was certainly substituted for the Sea, not 
only in the treaty, but in the Commissions of the 
Governors of Quebec, showing an alteration of the 
boundary of their jurisdiction, whilst no change was 
made in the Commissions of the Governors of New 
Brunswick, because the boundary of their province 
depended upon that of Quebec. The highlands 
separating rivers that empty into the Atlantic Ocean 
are by no means identical with the highlands sep- 
arating the rivers that empty into the Sea. The 
Americans have urged that the northern range di- 
vides the rivers of the St. Lawrence from the Atlan- 
tic rivers, but it certainly does not separate the Pe- 
nobscot branches north and east which flow into the 
Atlantic from the southern range ; and the term 
" Tlie rivers," of course means ail the rivers, because, 
otherwise, such a considerable stream as the Penob- 
scot would have been excepted specially. The 
southern range separated all the rivers which flow 
into the Atlantic, from all the rivers which flow into 
the St. Lawrence. 

Had the Commissioners drawn the due north line 
from the western branch of the St. Croix, which 
formed the ancient boundary of Nova Scotia, instead 
of from the northern branch, the whole of the com- 
plicated and vexatious questions might have been 
evaded, and the claim urged by the United States 
might never have been heard. It was the doctrine 
of State Rights alone which justified the rejection 
of the Netherlands compromise. The tract in dis- 



258 CANADA. 

pute was indeed but seven million acres of river, 
mountain, and forest, but the northern boundary of 
this tract overlooked the course of the St. Lawrence, 
and carried American territory within a day's march 
of its stream, whilst the direct roads and communi- 
cations between the Provinces east and west, would 
be placed inside American territory. To the Maine 
lumberers, however, this tract was not uninviting, 
and it became a debatable land, in which Brit- 
ish colonists from New Brunswick, and American 
squatters, carried on a series of inroads and forcible 
settlements, which were fortunately unattended by 
actual bloodshed. Lord Palmerston, who in 183o 
notified the refusal of the British Government to 
accept the Netherlands compromise, appointed Com- 
missioners in 1839 to inquire into the state of the 
question upon the spot, and their report, which was 
handed to the United States Government in 1840, 
in the most absolute terms laid it down that the 
southern range was that intended by the treaty of 
1783. Mr. (^rattan, who was by no means unduly 
disposed to favor American pretensions, describes 
with terse propriety the disputes which now arose. 
" All on our side," he says, " was supercilious pride ; 
on that of the United States, aggressive coarseness." 
To Sir Robert Peel is due the praise of having 
taken a decided step to settle the northeastern 
boundary. Lord Ashburton, received with consid- 
erable enthusiasm in the United States, was at once 
accepted by President Tyler, and for the better ad- 
justment of the difficulty, it was arranged that he 
should be met by Mr. Webster in a spirit of perfect 
candor; that memoranda and despatches were to be 
dispensed with, and that every honest, straightfor- 
ward exertion should be made on both sides to come 
to a satisfactory settlement of the vexed question. 
Lord Ashburton had, however, to encounter not only 
the Secretary of State, but the Commissioners of 
Maine and Massachusetts, among whom were Mr. 
Abbott Lawrence and Mr. Preble. 



AMERICAN DIPLOMATISTS. 259 

Mr. Grattan, who was actually invited to assist at 
the negotiations by the American Commissioners, 
and went to Washington as amicus curim, gives a 
most minute and interesting account of the whole of 
the proceedings, and states positively that jMr. Web- 
ster sent a confidential agent to the Commissioners, 
proposing a line far south of the St. John's River, 
before they had got further than New York, which ^ 
gave great offence to Mr. Preble, by whose influence 
it was rejected. His pertinacity and the pomposity 
of Lawrence, with which we are well acquainted in 
England, were obstacles in the way of a calm discus- 
sion of adverse claims, but the other Commissioners 
are described as exceedingly forbearing, unassuming, 
and well-behaved. 

At first Lord Ashburton seemed to make way with 
Mr. Webster, and to be on the point of obtaining a 
more favorable line than that proposed by the Neth- 
erlands compromise, but the British Commissioner 
had no special proof or absolute document to show 
that the highlands south of St. John indicated the 
boundary meant by the treaty of 1783. It was 
known that Dr. Franklin sent from Paris to Wash- 
ington, at the time of making the treaty, a map on 
which was drawn a red ink-line to show the boun- 
dary to Mr. Jefferson. 

It is strange enough that, in the state of confusion 
caused by conflicting statem.ents and contradictory 
documents, it should not have occurred to Lord 
Ashburton or to Mr. Grattan, who records his own 
anxious searches after Dr. Franklin's map, that a 
counterpart might have been readily found in Paris 
in the archives of the Foreign Office ; but the fact 
was, Franklin's map could nowhere be found in the 
State Paper Department of Washington. 

The production of that map with the red ink-line 
must have placed the boundary question beyond the 
reach of controversy ; in fact, the map of De Ver- 
gennes could have been consulted at Paris, and the 



260 CANADA. 

same red line might have been seen on it as that 
which was seen in Franklin's. Lord Aberdeen had 
for some inscrutable reason resolved that the boun- 
dary should be drawn so as to include the settlement 
of Madawaska on the St. John, within the British 
possessions, whilst the Commissioners were equally 
resolute not to except an inch south of the St. John 
^itself; and the arrangement proposed by a small 
European monarch was regarded by the Americans 
as a proof that they were entitled to all that they 
had asked, and that the compromise was suggested 
to propitiate England. 

The expectations which had been entertained of 
an immediate adjustment were followed by a re- 
newal of angry feeling and political commotion. 
Lord Ashburton, after an unequal struggle with 
Webster and the Commissioners, in a controversial 
correspondence on which he had not very wisely 
entered, yielded in a spirit of honorable concession 
the claim of Great Britain to the southern line of 
highlands. He was impressed somewhat, no doubt, 
by the vehemence and force of unanimous public 
opinion in America respecting the justice of their 
claim, the strong and general conviction felt that the 
country was in the right. Extended and accessible 
on every side, his mind could not resist the constant 
pressure of the audacious and penetrating weight 
of Webster's intellect, and he gradually gave way 
like a crumbling wall to the flood-tide of intense 
determination by which he was assailed. The 
middle of the St. John was accepted as the boundary, 
but instead of following the highlands overlooking 
the valley of the St. Lawrence, a line was deter- 
mined upon sixty miles more to the south, which 
thus removes the United States frontier to a tolerable 
distance from the navigation of the river and the 
military control of the banks. 

On both sides of the Atlantic this compromise was 
received with expressions of disgust and anger. The 



FRANKLIN'S RED LINE. 261 

Americans, knowing themselves very well and Eng- 
lishmen very little, declared that Daniel Webster had 
been bought. 

In the land of liberty it is the custom of the repre- 
sentatives of the people to conduct their debates in 
secret whenever any question of public interest arises, 
and the Senate ratified the treaty by a large majority, 
after a long debate carried on with closed doors for 
several days. 

Some time after the treaty had been signed, it 
tuiued out that Mr. Webster had all the time pos- 
sessed a map on which Franklin's red line, tracing the 
boundary of 1783 south of the St. John, was distinctly 
marked. 

The map in question was an authentic copy of 
one which was given to De Vergennes by Dr. Frank- 
lin himself when the treaty was made. Its existence 
had been made known to the President, to the Sen- 
ate, and to all the Americans engaged in the nego- 
tiation. This map was no doubt the same as that 
which had disappeared from the State Department. 
Its existence was known to many people. It appears 
that Mr. Jared Sparks, of Boston, found in the 
archives at Paris the following letter : — 

''Paisse/j, Deer. 6th, 1782. 
"Sir, — I have the honor of returning herewith 
the map your Excellency sent me yesterday. I have 
marked with a strong red line, according to your 
desire, the limits of the United States as settled in 
the preliminaries between the British and American 
Plenipotentiaries. 

" With great respect, 

" I am, &c., 

" B. Franklin." 

This letter was addressed to the Count De Ver- 
gennes, the French Minister. Mr. Sparks, in fact, 
discovered the actual map of North America of 1746, 

12* 



262 CANADA. 

and on it was drawn a strong red line throughout the 
entire boundary of the United States, answering 
exactly to Franklin\^ description. " Imagine," says 
Mr. Sparks, "my surprise on discovering- that this 
line runs wholly south of the St. John's, and between 
the head-waters of that river and those of the Pe- 
nobscot and Kennebec; in short, it is exactly the line 
contended for by Great Britain, except that it con- 
cedes more than is claimed." 

When the secret debates of the Senate were pub- 
lished, it was seen that Mr. Rives, the Chairman of 
the Committee on Foreign Affairs, had fortiiied his 
argument against the rejection of this Ashburton line 
by quoting the existence of this map, and warning 
them of the risk and danger of a further search into 
the archives of Europe. In the debate that followed, 
Mr. Benton, eager to overthrow the value of Mr. 
Sparks's discovery and of Mr. Rives's argument, 
produced a map from the Jeflerson collection in the 
library of Congress, which contained a dotted line 
marking the boundary of the Government of Quebec 
under the proclamation of 1763, but strange to say, 
he overlooked the fact which was at once visible to 
every eye, that a strong red line, indicating the limits 
of the United States according to the Treaty of 
Peace, was traced across it, which coincided minutely 
and exactly with the boundary on Mr. Sparks's map. 

Those who wish for the most minute details re- 
specting this map, may be referred to Mr. Grattan's 
work. The map of Baron Steiben, and that of Fa- 
den, coincide in a most remarkable manner in mark- 
ing the limits of the United States. 

It is worthy of note that Mr. Buchanan, the last 
President of the United States, did his very best to 
maintain the propriety of the deceit. Mr. Calhoun 
is supposed to have appreciated the importance of the 
discoveries, and to have felt the injury to American 
diplomacy which Mr. Webster's suppressions of truth 
might create on future occasions. The Americans 



MK. WEBSTEil'S OPINION. 263 

actually made use of the weakness of the English 
Minister as an argument that they had been cheated 
themselves, and Mr. Webster's ability in concealing 
the truth was considered evidence that he had not 
gone far enough in the same line, and his reputation 
as a skilful and successful negotiator was considered 
not to stand very high. The action of Sir Robert 
Peel, however, prevented any endeavor to obtain the 
legitimate advantages which the discovery of these 
maps ought to have produced. 

The decision arrived at affected the State of Maine 
and the pretensions of its people, but it had little to 
do with the prosperity or military strength of the 
whole of the Union ; whilst it weakened Canada in its 
weakest point, and conferred most signal advantage 
on the only enemy it had to fear ; it bit in to the sub- 
stance of the Provinces, and at the same time cut 
the vein of communication with the sea for five long 
winter months. Strange that a line drawn upon a 
piece of paper by the hand of a man gathered to his 
fathers for so many years, should for a time at least 
decide so much of a nation's happiness and prosperity 
— for a time only, because it must soon be that the 
increasing power or failing resources of the United 
States, or of Canada, will cause a modification of the 
present frontier, more in accordance with the com- 
mercial and military exigencies of the two States. 
The Canadians feel that Imperial diplomacy has 
done them a great wrong, possibly very much as 
France feels in respect to her Rhenish boundary; but 
in a military point of view, perhaps the cession of 
Rouse's Point has been the most serious of all the 
circumstances affecting the relations for aggressive 
purposes of the United States with the Provinces. 

In order that we may appreciate the importance of 
Mr. Webster's achievement, let us quote his own 
description of it in the great debate which took place 
in the Senate on the Washington Treaty. Mr. 
Webster, in noticing some of the many charges made 



264 CANADA. 

against him in reference to the treaty, dealt with the 
question of military concession in the following man- 
ner : — 

" Lord Palmerston (if he be the author of certain 
publications ascribed to him) says that all the impor- 
tant points were given up by Lord Ashburton to the 
United States. I might here state, too, that Lord 
Palmerston called the whole treaty ' the Ashburton 
capitulation,' declaring that it yielded everything that 
was of importance to Great Britain, and that all its 
.stipulations were to the advantage of the United 
States, and to the sacrifice of the interests of Eng- 
land. But it is not on such general, and, I may add, 
such unjust statements, nor on any off-hand expres- 
sions used in debate, though in the roundest terms, 
that this question must turn. He speaks of this mil- 
itary road, but he entirely misplaces it. The road 
which runs from New Brunswick to Canada follows 
the north side of the St. John to the mouth of the 
Madawaska, and then, turning northwest, follows that 
stream to Lake Temiscoata, and thence proceeds over 
a depressed part of the highlands till it strikes the 
St. Lawrence 117 miles below Quebec. This is the 
road which has been always used, and there is no 
other. 

" 1 admit that it is very convenient for the British 
Government to possess territory through which they 
may enjoy a road ; it is of great value as an avenue 
of communication in time of peace ; but as a military 
communication it is of no value at all. What busi- 
ness can an army ever have there ? Besides, it is no 
gorge, no pass, no narrow defile, to be defended by a 
fort. If a fort should be built there, an army could, 
at pleasure, make a detour so as to keep out of the 
reach of its guns. It is very useful, I admit, in time 
of peace. But does not everybody know, military 
man or not, that unless there is a defile, or some nar- 
row place through which troops must pass, and which 



MR. WEBSTER'S OPINION. 265 

a fortification will command, that a mere open road 
must, in time of war, be in the power of the strong- 
est ? If we retained by treaty the territory over which 
the road is to be constructed, and war came, would 
not the English take possession of it if they could ? 
Would they be restrained by a regard to the treaty of 
Washington ? I have never yet heard a reason ad- 
duced why this communication should be regarded 
as of the slightest possible advantage in a military 
point of view. 

" But the circumstance to which I allude is, that, 
by a map published with the speech of the honorable 
member from Missouri, made in the Senate, on the 
question of ratifying the treaty, this well-known and 
long-used road is laid down, probably from the same 
source of error which misled Lord Palmerston, as 
following the St. John, on its south side, to the mouth 
of the St. Francis ; thence along that river to its 
source, and thence, by a single bound, over the high- 
lands to the St. Lawrence, near Quebec. This is all 
imagination. It is called the ' Valley Road.' Valley 
Road, indeed ! Why, Sir, it is represented as run- 
ning over the very ridge of the most inaccessible part 
of the highlands! It is made to cross abrupt and 
broken precipices, 2000 feet high ! It is, at different 
points of its imaginary course, from fifty to a hundred 
miles distant from the real road. 

" So much, Mr. President, for the great boon of 
military commuiiication conceded to England. It is 
nothing more nor less than a common road, along 
streams and lakes, and over a country in great part 
rather flat. It then passes the heights to the St. 
Lawrence. If war breaks out, we shall take it if w^e 
can, and if we need it, of which there is not the 
slightest probability. It will never be protected by 
fortifications, and never can be. It will be just as 
easy to take it from England, in case of war, as it 
would be to keep possession of it, if it were our own. 

" In regard to the defence of the heights, I shall dis- 



266 CANADA. 

pose of that subject in a few words. There is a ridge 
of highlands which does approach the river St. 
Lawrence, although it is not true that it overlooks 
Quebec ; on the contrary, the ridge is at the distance 
of thirty or forty miles. 

" It is very natural that military men in England, 
or indeed in any part of Europe, should have attached 
great importance to these mountains. The great 
military authority of England, perhaps the highest 
living military authority, had served in India and on 
the European continent, and it was natural enough 
that he should apply European ideas of military de- 
fences to America. But they are quite inapplicable. 
Highlands such as these are not ordinarily found on 
the great battle-fields of Europe. They are neither 
Alps nor Pyrenees ; they have no passes through 
them, nor roads over them, and never will have. 

" Then there was another cause of misconception on 
this subject in England. In 1839 an ex-parte survey 
was made, as I have said, by Colonel Mudge and Mr. 
Featherstonhaugh, if survey it could be called, of the 
region in the North of Maine, for the use of the Brit- 
i.sh Government. I dare say Colonel Mudge is an in- 
telligent and respectable officer ; how much personal 
attention he gave the subject I do not know. As 
to Mr. Featherstonhaugh, he has been in our service, 
and his authority is not worth a straw. These two 
persons made a report, containing this very singular 
statement : That in the ridge of highlands nearest to 
the St. Lawrence, there was a great hiatus m one 
particular place, a gap of thirty or forty miles, in 
which the elevation did not exceed fifty feet. This is 
certainly the strangest statement that ever was made. 
Their whole report gave but one measurement by the 
barometer, and that measurement stated the height of 
1200 feet. A survey and map were made the follow- 
ing year by our own commissioners, Messrs. Graham 
and Talcott, of the Corps of Topographical Engi- 
neers, and Professor Ren wick, of Columbia College. 



OUR SHARE OF EQUIVALENTS. 267 

On this map, the very spot where this gap was said to 
be situated is dotted over thickly with figures, show- 
ing heights varying from 1200 to 2000 feet, and form- 
ing one rough and lofty ridge, marked by abrupt and 
almost perpendicular precipices. When this map and 
report of Messrs. Mudge and Featherstonhaugh were 
published, the British authorities saw that this al- 
leged gap was laid down as an indefensible point, 
and it was probably on that ground alone that they 
desired a line east of that ridge, in order that they 
might guard against access of a hostile power from 
the United States. But in truth there is no such 
gap ; our engineers proved this, and we quite well 
understood it when agreeing to the boundary. Any 
man of common sense, military or not, must there- 
fore now see, that nothing can be more imaginary or 
Unfounded than the idea that any importance attaches 
to the possession of these heights. 

" Sir, there are two old and well-known roads to 
Canada; one by way of Lake Champlain and the 
Richelieu, to Montreal — this is the route which 
armies have traversed so often in different periods 
of our history. The other leads from the Kenne- 
bec River to the sources of the Chaudiere and the Du 
Loup, and so to Quebec — this last was the track 
of Arnold's march. East of this, there is no prac- 
ticable communication for troops between Maine 
and Canada, till we get to the Madawaska. We 
had before us a report from General Wool, while 
this treaty was under negotiation, in which that in- 
telligent officer declares that it is perfectly idle to 
think of fortifying any point east of this road. East 
of Arnold's track it is a mountain region, through 
which no army can possibly pass into Canada. 
With General Wool was associated, in tliis ex- 
amination, Major Graham, whom I have already 
mentioned. His report to General Wool, made in 
the year 1838, nearly points out the Kennebec and 
Chaudiere road as the only practicable route for an 



268 • CANADA. 

army between* Maine and Quebec. He was subse- 
quently employed as a commissioner in the ex-parte 
surveys of the United States. Being an engineer 
officer of high character for military knowledge and 
scientific accuracy, his opinion had the weight it 
ought to have, and which will be readily given to 
it by all who know him. His subsequ-ent and still 
more thorough acquaintance with this mountain 
range, in its whole extent, has only confirmed the 
judgment which he had previously formed. And, 
Sir, this avenue to Canada, this practicable avenue, 
and only practicable avenue east of that by way 
of Lake Champlain, is left now just as it was found 
by the treaty. The treaty does not touch it, nor in 
any manner affect it. 

" But I must go further. I said that the treaty of 
Washington was a treaty of equivalents, in which 
it was expected that each party should give some- 
thing and receive something. I am now willing to 
meet any gentleman, be he a military man or not, 
who will make the assertion, that, in a military point 
of view, the greatest advantages derived from that 
treaty are on the side of Great Britain. It was on 
this point that I wished to say something in reply 
to an honorable member from New York, who 
will have it that in this treaty England supposes that 
she got the advantage of us. Sir, I do not think the 
military advantages she obtained by it are worth a 
rush. But even if they were, if she had obtained 
advantages of the greatest value, would it not have 
been fair in the member from New York to state, 
nevertheless, whether there were not equivalent mili- 
tary advantages obtained on our side, in other parts 
of the line ? Would it not have been candid and 
proper, in him, when adverting to the military ad- 
vantages obtained by England, in a communication 
between New Brunswick and Canada, if such ad- 
vantages there were, to have stated, on the other 
hand, and at the same time, our recovery of Rouse's 



STRATEGIC VALUE OF EOUSE'S POINT. 269 

Point, at the outlet of Lake Champlain ? an advan- 
tage which overbalanced all others, forty times told. 
I must be allowed to say, that I certainly never ex- 
pected that a member from New York, above all 
other men, should speak of this treaty as conferring 
military advantages on Great Britain without full 
equivalents. I listened to it, I confess, with utter 
astonishment. A distinguished senator from that 
State saw at the time, very clearly, the advantage 
gained by this treaty to the United States and to 
New York. He voted willingly for its ratification, 
and he ne\^er will say that Great Britain obtained a 
balance of advantages in a military point of view. 

" Why, how is the State of New York affected 
by this treaty ? Sir, is not Rouse's Point perfectly 
w^ell known, and admitted, by every military man, 
to be the key of Lake Champlain ? It commands 
every vessel passing up or down the lake, between 
New York and Canada. It had always been sup- 
posed that this point lay some distance south of the 
parallel of 45", which was our boundary -line with 
Canada, and therefore was within the United States ; 
and, under this supposition, the United States 
purchased the land, and commenced the erection of 
a strong fortress. But a more accurate survey hav- 
ing been made in 1818, by astronomers on both 
sides, it was found that the parallel of 45" ran south 
of this fortress, and thus Rouse's Point, with the 
fort upon it, was found to be in the British dominions. 
This discovery created, as well it might, a great sen- 
sation here. None knows this better than the hon- 
orable member from South Carolina, who was then 
at the head of the Department of War. As Rouse's 
Point was no longer ours, we sent our engineers to 
examine the shores of the lake, to find some other 
place or places which we might fortify. They made 
a report on their return, saying that there were two 
other points some distance south of Rouse's Point, 
one called Windmill Point, on the east side of the 



270 CANADA. 

lake, and the other called Stony Point, on the west 
side, which it became necessary now to fortify, and 
they gave an estimate of the probable expense. 
When this treaty was in process of negotiation, we 
called for the opinion of military men respecting the 
value of Rouse's Point, in order to see whether it 
was highly desirable to obtain it. We had their re- 
port before us, in which it was stated that the 
natural and best point for the defence of the out- 
let of Lake Champlain was Rouse's Point. In fact, 
anybody might see that this was the case who would 
look at the map. The point projects into the nar- 
rowest passage by which the waters of the lake pass 
into the Richelieu. Any vessel passing into or out 
of the lake, must come within point-blank range of 
the guns of a fortress erected on this point ; and it 
ran out so far that any such vessel must approach 
the fort, head on, for several miles, so as to be ex- 
posed to a raking fire from the battery, before she 
could possibly bring her broadside to bear upon the 
fort at all. It was very different with the points 
farther south. Between them the passage was 
much wider ; so much so, indeed, that a vessel 
might pass directly between the two, and not be 
in reach of point-blank shot from either." 

Mr. Dickinson, of New York, here interposed, to 
ask whether the Dutch line did not give us Rouse's 
Point. 

" Certainly not. It gave us a semicircular line, 
running round the fort, but not including what we 
had possessed before. And besides, we had rejected 
the Dutch line, and the whole point now clearly 
belono^ed to Ena:land. It was all within the British 
territory. 

" I was saying that a vessel might pass between 
Windmill Point and Stony Point, and be without 
the range of both, till her broadside could be brought 
to bear upon either of them. The forts would be 
entirely independent of each other, and, having no 



MR. WEBSTER ON THE INVASION 6F CANADA. 271 

communication, could not rende« each other the 
least assistance in case of attack. But the military 
men told us there was no sort of question that Rouse's 
Point was extremely desirable as a point of mili- 
tary defence. This is plain enough, and I need not 
spend time to prove it. Of one thing I am certain, 
that the true road to Canada is by the way of Lake 
Cham plain. That is the old path. I take to myself 
the credit of having said here, thirty years ago, 
speaking of the mode of taking Canada, that, when 
an American woodsman undertakes to fell a tree, 
he does not begin by lopping off the branches, but 
strikes his axe at once into the trunk. The trunk, in 
relation to Canada, is Montreal, and the river St. 
Lawrence down to Quebec; and so we found in the 
last war. It is not my purpose to scan the propriety 
of military measures then adopted, but I suppose it 
to have been rather accidental and unfortunate that 
we began the attack in Upper Canada. It would 
have been better military policy, as I suppose, to 
have pushed our whole force by the way of Lake 
Champlain, and made a direct movement on Mon- 
treal ; and though we might thereby have lost 
the glories of the battles of the Thames and of 
Lundy's Lane, and of the sortie from Fort Erie, yet 
we should have won other laurels of equal, and per- 
haps greater, value at Montreal. Once successful in 
this movement, the whole country above would 
have fallen into our power. Is not this evident to 
every gentleman ? 

" Rouse's Point is the best means of defending 
both the ingress into the lake, and the exit from it. 
And I say now, that on the whole frontier of the 
State of New York, with the single exception of the 
Narrows below the city, there is not a point of equal 
importance. I hope this government will last for- 
ever ; but if it does not, and if, in the judgment of 
Heavefi, so great a calamity shall befall us as the 
rupture of this Union, and the State of New York 



272 CANADA. 

shall thereby be thrown upon her own defences, I ask, 
is there a single point, except the Narrows, the pos- 
session of which she will so much desire ? No, 
there is not one. And how did we obtain this ad- 
vantage for her ? The parallel of 45^ north was 
established by the treaty of 1783 as our boundary 
with Canada in that part of the line. But, as I have 
stated, that line was found to run south of Rouse's 
Point. And how did we get back this precious pos- 
session? By running a semicircle like that of the 
King of the Netherlands ? No ; we went back to 
the old line, which had always been supposed to be 
the true line, and the establishment of which gave 
us not only Rouse's Point, but a strip of land con- 
taining some thirty or forty thousand acres between 
the parallel of 45^ and the old line. 

" The same arrangement gave us a similar advan- 
tage in Vermont ; and I have never heard that the 
constituents of my friend near me made any com- 
plaint of the treaty. That State got about sixty 
or seventy thousand acres, including several villages, 
which would otherwise have been left on the British 
side of the line. We received Rouse's Point, and 
this additional land, as one of the equivalents for 
the cession of territory made in Maine. And what 
did we do for New Hampshire ? There was an 
ancient dispute as to which was the northwestern- 
most head of the Connecticut River. Several streams 
were found, either of which might be insisted on as 
the true boundary. But we claimed that which is 
called Hall's Stream. This had not formerly been 
allowed ; the Dutch award did not give to New 
Hampshire what she claimed ; and Mr. Van Ness, 
our Commissioner, appointed under the Treaty of 
Ghent, after examining the ground, came to the con- 
clusion that we were not entitled to Hall's Stream. 
I thought that we were so entitled, although I admit 
that Hall's Stream does not join the Connecticut 
River till after it has passed the parallel of 45^. By 



NEW HAMPSHIRE — VERMONT. 273 

the Treaty of Washington this demand was agreed 
to, and it gave New Hampshire 100,000 acres of land. 
I do not say that we obtained this wrongfully ; but 
I do say that we got that which Mr. Van Ness had 
doubted our right to. I thought the claim just, how- 
ever, and the line was established accordingly. And 
here let me say, once for all, that, if we had gone 
for arbitration, we should inevitably have lost what 
the treaty gave to Vermont and New York ; because 
all that was clear matter of cession, and nol adjust- 
ment of doubtful boundary." 

Unfortunately Mr. Webster but too well described 
our share of the advantages obtained by this " treaty 
of equivalents." The consequences to us in a war 
might be more disastrous than those he indicated. 



274 CANADA. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Acadian Confederation. — Union is Strength. — The Provinces. — 
New Brunswick. — The Temperature. — Trade of St. John. — Climate 
and Agricidture of Nova Scotia. — Prince Edward Island. — Newfound- 
land. — The Red River District. — Assiniboia. — The Red River Valley. 
Minnesota and the West. — The Hudson's Bay Company — Their Ter- 
ritory. — The NorthAvest Regions. — Climate of Winnipeg Basin — - Its 
Area. — Finances of the Confederation. — Imports, Exports, and Ton- 
nage. — Proposed Federal Constitution. — Lessons from the American 
Struggle. , 

We have now seen the dangers which threaten 
Canada, we have to some extent examined the means 
of resisting them, and have followed the process by 
which a severe injury was inflicted on her powers of 
defence. Mr. Webster was a grand specimen of un- 
scrupulous intelligence — he was a colossal "Yan- 
ket;." It will be observed that he regarded the acqui- 
sitions so dexterously made — qiiocunque modo rem 
— as valuable on account of their military capabili- 
ties — that he took the highest point accessible to 
the American mind when he showed that his work 
could be made available for the annoyance and 
injury of Great Britain. In so far he betrayed — if 
indeed there is any deception in the matter — the 
animating principle of American political life. Let 
any public man prove that he has hurt the English 
power or affronted it — that he has damnified its 
commerce and lowered its prestige, and the popular 
sentiment will applaud him, no matter the agency 
by which his purpose was effected. Recent events 
have greatly inflamed the spirit which always burned 
against us. The very events which have broken up 
the Union may resolve its fragments into a new^ 
combination more formidable and more aggressive. 

The course open to Canada, which may feel once 
more the force of that permanent principle in the 



UNION IS STRENGTH. 275 

American mind, is plain. Great Britain may be" 
too far off. She may be too much engaged to be 
able to aid Canada efficiently and fully. But on the 
borders of Canada there are provinces with great re- 
sources and a great future, which have hitherto been 
prevented by various considerations from welding 
themselves into a Confederation. The time has 
come now in the white heat of American strife for 
the adoption of the process. The Confederation of 
States with divers interests under a weak executive 
has. fallen to pieces. All the more reason for a Con- 
federation of States with common interests and with 
one governing principle. If we accept the common 
governing principle of all the Colonies and Provinces 
to be their attachment to Monarchical institutions, 
any pressure from the influences of Republican in- 
stitutions can but consolidate their union. 

Under the circumstances in which the various dis- 
tinct dependencies of the British Crown in the Con- 
tinent of North America find themselves placed^ it 
is not surprising that the idea of a Confederation for 
the purposes of common defence and military corrob- 
oration should have arisen. It is surprising that it 
should have floated about so long, and have stirred 
men to action so feebly. I think it is the first notion 
that occurs to a stranger visiting Canada and cast- 
ing about for a something to put in place of the 
strength which distant England cannot, and Cana- 
dians will not, afford. At least, there is no sign as 
yet that the Canadians will quite arouse from a sleep 
which no fears disturb, although they hear the noise 
of robbers. They will not prepare for war, because 
they wish for peace, and it is plain enough that if 
war should come instead of peace, England would 
be too late to save them, because she would be too 
far. Now^, let it not be supposed that any confedera- 
tion of the Canadas and British North American 
provinces would yield such an increase of foree as 
would enable the collective or several members of it 



276 CANADA. 

to resist the force of the Republic of the Northern 
American United States — at least, not just now. 
But in the very conflict in which the Northern and 
Southern Confederations are engaged we see the 
vast energy and resources of a union of States in 
war time as compared with the action of States not 
so joined : — France, Great Britain, Turkey, and 
Sardinia were associated in the war with Russia, but 
their power would have been much greater had they 
acted under a common head. There is in every as- 
sociation of the States the danger of ultimate con- 
vulsions, and of death itself, whenever the constitu- 
tion and ideas of one State differ from those of 
another ; for the difference of constitution and ideas 
is sure to produce soon a conflict of interests and 
opinions which the bond of federation cannot com- 
press. In the two Canadas there are certain oppos- 
ing principles at work which have interfered with 
harmonious action at times. These might receive 
greater vitality and power on each side if the cohe- 
sion of the British dependencies were not complete. 
The religious questions which now are mixed with 
questions of race would perhaps acquire development 
and become more active and more mischievous. But 
the actual positive visible dangers of non- Confedera- 
tion are more weighty than those which may come 
by and by from the adoption of a common central 
government subject to the Crown. Setting out with 
the principles of submission to the Throne — with 
the recognition of the sovereignty of the monarch of 
Great Britain and Ireland — wdth the full acknowl- 
edgment of the rights and prerogatives pertaining to 
the Crown — with the charters of their several and 
collective liberties in their possession, the only great 
schism to be apprehended is one which might arise 
from the exercise of Parliamentary control over the 
action of the Confederation, because colonists will 
never admit that the Parliament can stand in the 
place of the Crown. Let us take a glance at the 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 277 

vast area, and consider the importance of the vari- 
ous colonies which own now no bond of connection, 
except a common obedience to the Queen, in order 
that we may appreciate their strength as a Confed- 
eration. 

The Province of New Brunswick contains just 
28,000 square miles ; it lies between 45° and 48° lat. 
(north), and 63° 45^ and 67° 50' long, (west), washed 
on the east by the waters of the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence, and on the south by those of the Bay of 
Fundy. It has a very extensive seaboard, not less 
than two thirds being maritime ; whilst on the west 
it is bounded by the frontier of the State of Maine, 
and on the north by Lower Canada. The popula- 
tion in 1851 was 193,000, and it probably is not less 
now than 225,000 souls. The boastfulness of the 
Americans, and more especially of New Englanders, 
m all that relates to their country, causes us to over- 
look the progress of our own colonies, and we shall 
be surprised to find the increase of people in New 
Brunswick has been greater than that of Vermont, 
Maine, or New Hampshire, by an average of 10 per 
cent, within the decade up to 1851. The Govern- 
ment is vice-monarchical and parliamentary ; the 
Lieutenant-Governor of the Province being Com- 
mander-in-Chief, Admiral, and Chancellor. His 
ministers are the Executive Council, consisting of 
nine members, whose tenure of office depends on the 
will of the people, inasmuch as they must retire on 
a vote of want of confidence. The Parliament con- 
sists of the Legislative Council, which is somewhat 
analagous to the House of Peers. It is composed 
of 21 members, who are appointed by the Crown 
durante placito, but who usually hold office for life. 
Although the Peers of Parliament are in one sense 
nominated by the Crown, they are legislators durante 
vitct, and cannot be removed from their functions by 
the Crown, and in other respects there are defects in 

13 



278 CANADA. 

an analogy between them and the House of Lords. 
The House of Assembly, consisting of 41 members, 
is elected every four years by the people of the four- 
teen counties, and of the city of St. John. The 
House levies taxes and duties, and regulates the ex- 
penditure and internal affairs of the Province ; but 
the Legislative Council may reject all its measures 
except those relating to money matters, and the as- 
sent of the Governor-General is needed to all meas- 
ures whatever. But it does not follow that the con- 
sent of Council, Assembly, and Lieutenant-Governor 
will do more than stamp the measure with the pop- 
ular and official imprimatur in the eyes of the Home 
Government, because Her Majesty in Council may 
reject any law whatever. It is rather in theory than 
in practice, however, that such an exercise of pre- 
rogative exists ; but in case of any marked difference 
of opinion between the Home Government and the 
Colonial Legislature, it is obvious that such a power, 
however consonant with monarchical right and tra- 
dition, might cause serious antagonism and create 
wide breaches. The risk of such disturbing influ- 
ences would, of course, be diminished by the action 
of a general government. 

It is little more than 100 years since a number of 
English settlers and colonists, then loyal, coming 
from Massachusetts, sailed from Newburyport to 
the coast of New Brunswick, which had been ceded 
by France to the British in 1713. Constantly men- 
aced by the French Canadians, the few English who 
represented the Crown could scarcely be considered 
to hold the most attenuated possession of the Prov- 
ince, until the French were obliged finally to cede 
all claims to the possession of an acknowledged 
nationality in British North America. The English 
maintained that the whole tract of country now 
known as Nova Scotia and New Brunswick be- 
longed to the Crown by virtue of the discoveries of 
Sebastian Cabot; but the French were the first to 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 279 

found permanent settlements, and certainly gave good 
reason why Acadia, as they termed the district, de- 
spite its frosts and snows and long lugubrious win- 
ters, should belong to the fleur-de-lis. As soon as 
Wolfe's victory had established the power of Eng- 
land, the enterprising spirit of the New Englanders 
led them to undertake settlements in these neglected 
regions. They carried with them what they had 
derived from the old country, — a love of law, not 
of litigation ; the forms of justice in the courts which 
administered its substance, — a magistracy, a police, 
a moral life and social liberty ; these were possessed 
by the settlers at a time when the vast majority of the 
people of Ireland was deprived of any semblance of 
such rights; and when Scotland, unsuccessful in her 
last effort for legitimacy and the Divine right of 
kings, w^as just recovering from the swoon into which 
she had fallen as the last volleys rolled away from 
Culloden. 

The New Englanders who settled Mangerville and 
civilized Sunbury were loyal to the Crown in the 
revolt of the colonies ; they formed a nucleus round 
which gathered many of the New England Tories 
and their families, so that in 1783 it was considered 
expedient by the Government to locate those who 
were called loyalists, and who shook the dust off their 
feet at the door of the New Republic, along the 
cleared settlements adjoining the Bay of Fundy and 
the water of St. John. It is strange that the first 
newspa,per should have been printed by these outcasts 
at a time when there were scarcely half a dozen jour- 
nals known in the mother-country ; but the peculiar 
circumstances under which these immigrants were 
placed no doubt developed the energies of a press 
which was not shackled by any political censorship. 
The wealth of the people lay around them ; their 
mines were in the forest, and the axe provided them 
with currency. To Sir Guy Carlton, the first Gov- 
ernor, when New Brunswick received a distinct char- 



280 CANADA. 

ter and a new constiliilion, and was separated from 
Nova Scotia, in 1788, must be conceded the credit 
of having nursed for twenty years, with singular care 
and success, the infancy of the colony ; — a succes- 
sion of Presidents or Governors and Councillors, 
whose names are reproduced in the history of the 
American colonies, — such men as Beverley Robin- 
son, Patman, Winslow, and Ludlow, — succeeded in 
the charge, and gradually developed the resources of 
the rising community. 

Fire has wrought more than one great wrong to 
this land of frost and snow. Yet it would not be 
just to describe New Brunswick as a Siberia. From 
Christmas to March the country is tolerably well pro- 
vided with a coating of snow. From April to May 
ploughing and seed-time last, and before October 
the harvests are generally gathered in. A glorious 
autumn yields to the rainfalls of November, and 
these in their turn harden to sleet and snow in De- 
cember ; but, after all, nearly seven months give 
space for sowing, ploughing, reaping, and saving. 
The New Brunsudckers, indeed, believe that the very 
severity of the frost in winter tends to render the 
cultivation of the land more easy than it is in Brit- 
ain ; and certainly rainfalls, and all the variableness 
of climate, do more injury in England than they do 
in Nev^^ Brunswick. The greatest ranges of tem- 
perature are in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where they 
reach from 20° below zero to 90° above it ; the highest 
temperature at St. John may be reckoned at 86°, the 
lowest at 14°. There are about 180 clear days and 
120 cloudy days in the year, and the snow-storms 
rarely last more than two days at a time. Now here 
is a region to which one would think the bedrenched 
Highlander, the betaxed Englishman, and much- 
vexed Irishman would resort in myriads. And there 
is land for many. At least 6,000^,000 acres of land 
suited for crops and wood-settlements are still to be 
disposed of. For half-a-crown a man may buy an 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 281 

acre of land, but of that sum only lUl. is demanded 
on sale, and the remainder may be paid in instal- 
ments extending over three years. The sales of the 
country lands are monthly. If the settler likes to 
pay on the spot he can have his land for 2s. an acre. 
Think of that, con-acre men of Tipperary and Lei- 
trim ! Think of that, farmers of the Lothians, or 
tenants of the Highland straths ! Shall I ask the 
men of Dorsetshire and East Gloucester to think of 
it too ? Nor need they fear to change their mode 
of life, except it be for the better, after the first 
rude work of labor is done ; nor need they fear to 
suffer from climate or disease. Typhus will cease to 
kill — fever and dysentery to decimate. And if the 
settler has kinsmen and friends willing to join with 
him, he can claim for himself and each of them 100 
acres of land, and pay for it by the work of road-mak- 
ing in the new country, so that in four years, if the 
w^ork set by the Commissioners be executed, each 
man who has been one year resident and has brought 
ten acres into cultivation, becomes, ipso facto^ owner 
of the whole lot of 100 acres. Now this is in a 
country which has been described by no incompetent 
witness, not as the peer of any region on earth in the 
beauty of wood and water, but as the superior of 
the best. The St. John flows in all its grandeur 
through the midst of the province, and the Resti- 
gouche gives a charm of scenery to the forest not 
to be surpassed. Lakes and streams open up dell, 
valley, and mountain - pass. Every creek in the 
much-indented coast swarms with fish. The Bay 
of Fundy abounds with codfish and pollock, hake, 
haddock, shad, herring, halibut, mackerel, eels, skate, 
and many other kinds of fish. The mouths of the 
rivers swarm with salmon, trout, striped bass, gas- 
pereaux, shad, and white trout. The Gulf of St. 
Lawrence and the Bay of Chaleurs yield nearly 
every description of valuable fish, as well as lobsters, 
crabs, oysters, and other shell-fish. The Province 



282 CANADA. 

receives nearly 100,000/. a year in exchange for the 
fish packed in ice, or cured and exported to foreign 
countries. Its wealth in timber is incalculable, be- 
cause the value rises gradually with the demand for 
the produce of its forests all over the world, and, 
with prudent management, these forests may be 
considered as inexhaustible. Coal of a bituminous 
character has been worked for some years past in 
several districts ; iron, manganese, lead, and copper, 
also exist in considerable quantities, and the mineral 
produce of the Province will no doubt add much to 
its importance as the works receive greater develop- 
ment. 

Although the trade of shipbuilding does not show 
a regular increase, the size of the vessels built at St. 
John and Miramichi has been increasing. Upwards 
of 100 ships were launched at these ports in 1860, 
with a measurement of 41,000 tons, and were worth 
upwards of 320,000/. Various branches of trade 
have obtained respectable dimensions, and are grow- 
ing steadily. Frederickton, the capital of the Province, 
is situated on the St. John, eighty-two miles from the 
sea, where the navigation for sea-going ships may be 
regarded as at an end. The number of great lakes 
which are available for internal commerce and trans- 
port complete the facilities offered by the river system 
and by the main roads, the latter of which have been 
liberally promoted by the Province. The water-power 
of the colony is boundless. Education is provided 
by the Legislature, so that the poorest man can givf 
his children the advantage of a sound instructior 
almost without cost. Religion is free, and the volun- 
tary system mitigates the animosity of sects. Emi- 
grants from the South of Ireland have found here aL 
the conditions of prosperity, and have turned them 
to good account. Scotch and English thrive exceed- 
ingly. Indeed, if it w^ere not that the greater clamor 
and bustle of the United States had succeeded in 
overpowering the appeals of New Brunswick to the 



NOVA SCOTIA. 283 

favor of the emigrant, many thousands of our coun- 
trymen would have there found the ease and com- 
fort which they have sought in vain under the rule 
of the Republic. The very flame, New Brunswick, 
has no doubt repelled settlers. A New Brunswick 
ship they know nothing of even if they see one, and 
the name itself rarely reaches their ears. 

Nova Scotia formerly comprised the Province of 
New Brunswick, but is now reduced to the length of 
256 miles, and the breadth of 100 miles. The island 
of Cape Breton, which belongs to it, is 100 miles long, 
and 72 broad. The area of Nova Scotia and Cape 
Breton is over 18,000 square miles. The population 
is estimated at 370,000, the Census of 1861 having 
given 330,860 and the ratio of increase having been 
on an average of four per cent, per annum ; but emi- 
grants are rarely attracted to the colony. In 1861, of 
the people, 294,000 were native Nova Scotians, 16,000 
were of Scottish, 9000 of Irish, 3000 of English ori- 
gin ; France, which founded the colony, had only 88 
representatives on land. The English Church had 
48,000 members, the Scotch Church numbered 88,000,' 
the Church of Rome 80,000 ; there were 56,000 Bap- 
tists, 34,000 Wesleyans, and, wonderful to say, only 3 
Deists. When it is considered that the coal-helds of 
Nova Scotia are the finest in the world, that her min- 
ing wealth is extraordinary, that her seas, lakes, and 
rivers teem with fish, that her forests yield the finest 
timber, that the soil gives an ample return to the 
farmer, and the earth is full of mineral resources, it 
is surprising that emigrants of limited means have 
not been tempted to try their fortune, in spite of 
the threatening skies and somewhat rigid winters. 
Nearly five millions and a half acres of land are still 
in the hands of the Crown, of which upwards of four 
million acres are open for settlement, and the aver- 
age price is about Is. Sd. an acre. From a very 
trustworthy work prepared by Messrs. Hind, Keefer, 



284 CANADA. 

Hodgins, Robb, Perley, and the Rev. Wm. Murray, 
to which I am indebted for much valuable informa- 
tion, it would appear that the climate of Nova Scotia 
is by no means so severe as it is reported to be, both 
in Great Britain and the United States. Though, at 
some seasons, the weather is very severe, as com- 
pared with England, Ireland, the South of Scotland, 
and a great portion of the United States of America, 
still it is more conducive to health than the milder 
but more hnmid corresponding seasons in those 
countries. The length and severity of Nova Scotia 
winters are greatly compensated by the mildness and 
beauty of autunm — which is protracted, not unfre- 
quently, into the middle of December — as well as by 
the months of steady sleighing which follow. The 
extreme of cold is 24° Fahr. below zero ; the extreme 
of heat, 95° above, in the shade. These extremes 
have not been often attained to of late years. The 
mean temperature of the year is 43°. There are 
about 100 days in which the temperature is above 
70° in summer. There are about twenty nights in 
the year in which the temperature is below zero. 
'The coldest season is from the last week of Decem- 
ber till the first week of March. 

The following table exhibits the annual mean 
temperature of several European cities, as compared 
with Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Toronto, C.*W. : — 

Latitude. Fahrenheit. 

44° 40' Halifax 43.8 

43 39 Toronto 44.4 

52 31 Berlin 47.5 

53 23 Dublin 49.1 

50 7 Frankfort 49.5 

49 39 Cherbourg 52.1 

MEAN SUMMEK TEMPERATURE. 

Fahrenheit. 

Halifix 62.0 

Toronto 64.5 

Greenwich 60.9 

Berlin 63.2 

Cherbourg , 61.9 

The annual quantity of rain which falls is about 



CLBIATE OF NOVA SCOTTA. 285 

forty-one inches. Of this quantity about six and a 
half inches fall in the form of snow. The annual 
depth of snow is eight and a half feet. Much of 
this quantity of snow is not allowed to rest long in 
its solid form. There are about 114 days of rain on 
the average in each year; much of this occurs in 
winter. The average number of days of snow in 
each year is about sixty. Violent tempests are not 
of frequent occurrence in Nova Scotia. The pre- 
vailing winds are the southwest, west, and north- 
west. In summer the north, northwest, and west 
winds are cool and dry. In winter they are cold and 
pieVcing. The soutli. and southwest are mild — 
agreeable — delightful. The northeast brings the 
greatest snow-storms; the east and southeast the 
most disagreeable rain-storms. Spring commences 
in Nova Scotia with the beginning of April. Seed- 
time and planting continue till the middle of June. 
Summer begins with the latter part of June, and 
embraces July and August. Vegetation is very 
rapid in the middle and western parts of the prov- 
ince, where the hay crop, and usually nearly all 
the grain crops, are harvested by the last week of 
August or first week of September. Autumn is the 
finest season in Nova Scotia. It is mild, serene, and 
cool enough to be bracing, and the atmosphere is of 
a purity that renders it peculiarly exhilarating and 
health-giving. The "Indian summer" occurs some- 
times as late as the middle of November, and lasts 
from three to ten days. The winter in Nova Scotia 
may be said to comprise about four months. It 
begins, some seasons, with the 1st of December, and 
runs into the month of Aj)ril. In other seasons it 
begins in the middle of December and ends with the 
last of March. The mean temperature of spring is 
49; of summer, 62°; of autumn, 35° ; of winter, 
22°. Similarity in agricultural productions furnishes 
a very fair criterion for the comparison of the cli- 
niates of different countries. Wheat, rye, oats, bar- 
ley, buckwheat, Indian corn, potatoes, turnips, man- 

13* 



286 CANADA. 

gel-wurzel, tomatoes, and other roots and grains grow 
in abundance and perfection in Nova Scotia. Ap- 
ples, pears, plums, cherries, and a multitude of smaller 
garden-fruits attain the utmost perfection. In some 
sections of the country peaches and grapes ripen in 
the open air. The climate of Nova Scotia is highly 
favorable both to health and length of days. Men 
and women frequently attain to the age of eighty 
years with the full possession of their mental facul- 
ties, and in excellent bodily health. It is not un- 
usual to find men enjoying good health at ninety ; 
and not a few reach one hundred years, while some 
pass that extreme boundary. Let the proportion of 
deaths to population in Nova Scotia be compared 
with that in Great Britain and the State of Rhode 
Island : — 

Xova Scotia, 1 in 70.71, or less than 1^^ per cent. 
Rhode Island, 1 in 46.11, or more than 2 " 

Great Britain, 1 in 44.75, or more than 2 " 

The climate of Nova Scotia is not noted for the 
generation of any disease peculiar to itself. Diphthe- 
ria has, of late years, been its most terrible scourge. 

Prince Edward Island — called so after the Father 
of Queen Victoria — is another member of the great 
group of British colonies and dependencies. This 
island, which is about 130 miles long and 30 miles 
broad, has less than 100,000 inhabitants. It con- 
tained less than 5000 souls in 1770, when it \vas 
separated from the government of Nova Scotia, and 
was erected into an independent province under un- 
favorable circumstances, arising out of the unfor- 
tunate conditions which were made when the land 
was allotted to the original proprietors. The early 
history of the colony afforded a remarkable exempli- 
fication of wrong-doing with good intentions, and 
the errors of the first English rulers who regulated 
the settlement of the province were not atoned for 
till many years of patient effort on the part of the 
people had been devoted to a removal of abuses. 



NEWFOUNDLAND. 287 

The island is under a Governor named by the 
Crown, whose Cabinet consists of an Executive 
Council of nine, selected from the Legislative Coun- 
cil and from the House of Assembly, the former con- 
sisting of twelve, the latter of thirty members, elected 
by the people. 

Newfoundland is 420 miles long, and has an ex- 
treme breadth of 300 miles. The population is now 
about 130,000. Notwithstanding its name, there is 
reason to believe that it was known to Icelanders 
and Norwegians, to Vikings and Danes, four cen- 
turies before Cabot came upon his Bonavista. The 
early history of our connection with this great island 
is not creditable to those who had influence with the 
home authorities. In 1832, following the principle 
of universal suffrage, which was considered appli- 
cable to a colony, though it v^as rejected at home, a 
Legislative system was erected on the basis of man- 
hood franchise, the only qualification being that the 
voter should have been a year in the same house. 
The Governor, who is of course a representative and 
nominee of the Crown, is assisted by an Executive 
Council of five members, and the Parliament con- 
sists of a Legislative Council of twelve and a House 
of Assembly of thirty members. 

There exists on the west of Canada a vast region 
which may, perhaps, become great and flourishing in 
less time than the districts which, inhabited by red 
men and wild beasts in 1776, now form some of the 
most important of the North and South American 
States. 

It is one of the very greatest of the evils connected 
with our parliamentary system, that small or local 
interests at home are likely to receive attention in 
preference to the largest general interests of depen- 
dencies. The Colonial Otfice is a sort of buffer 
between Parliament and the shocks of colonial ag- 



288 CANADA. 

gressions and demands; and the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer can at any time find easy means of 
squelchhig any tendency in the chancellor of a bar- 
barian administration "to dip his finger" into the 
Imperial purse. Now, when " the People of Red 
River settlement" address a memorial to the British 
and Canadian Governments with the view of obtain- 
ing a road to open np the wonderfully fine countiy 
they inhabit to British subjects and to commerce, 
without dependency on the United States, it may so 
happen that at the period in question the smallest 
claim of a metropolitan borough shall be considered 
of far greater preponderance ; nor will the Govern- 
ment or the Colonial Office at any time be much 
disposed to irritate a friendly 'mem.ber Vv'ho is inimical 
to colonies, or to provoke the animosity of econo- 
mists, for an object which is as intangible and incom- 
prehensible to the mass of Parliament as a project 
to run a railway to Eutopia, or to connect Timbuctoo 
with China. Mr. Sandford Fleming, who has been 
selected as the agent of these very settlers, has set 
forth their case with much ability; but he will scarce 
become the Lesseps of this overland Suez, unless 
some members of the House, who really look beyond 
the interests of the day, and take heed for the future 
of the Empire, can be induced to listen to his facts 
and arguments. In 1863 a statement was submitted 
by that gentleman to Lord Monck in elucidation of 
the memorial of the settlers, which contains most 
interesting facts and some valuable arguments. 
Among the works of good governments the making 
of roads and securing of easy means of intercom- 
munication among the people subject to them must 
ever be of paramount importance. The people of 
Red River ask for the opening of the Lake Superior 
route to British Columbia, and to have a telegraphic 
line . established, to both of which objects they will 
contribute to the best of their ability. The point of 
British territory nearest to the Red River settlement 



THE RED RIVER DISTRICT. 289 

by water is on the northern shore of Lake Superior, 
400 miles distant ; and the intervening distance can 
only be traversed by a combined system of " portages" 
and canoe-voyages, so difficult and tedious as in etiect 
to bar the access of commercial enterprise, and to 
chill any spirit but that of adventurous geography, 
amateur travel, or the search after gold and game — 
thus, in fact, constituting obstacles which are well 
described as " practically exiling the settlers for the 
last two generations." The route proposed for the 
links which are to connect the exiles with the world 
would be a part of the great project to connect 
the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific within the 
British possessions ; and it is maintained that the 
favorable character of the Red River district for 
such a road removes the objections which might be 
formed on the ground of distance and difficulty. 
The Hudson's Bay Company used the Pigeon River 
route, which runs along by the boundary of the 
United States, and is therefore not desirable in case 
of hostilities, and the Kaministiguia route, called so 
from the river of that name. Mr. Fleming, taking up 
the suggestions of Mr. Dawson in his report to the 
Canadian Government, recommends the creation of 
a territorial road from some point in connection with 
the railway system, such as Ottawa, to Nipigon 
Bay on Lake Superior, which would be ample as a 
trading-port, whence a stage and steamboat com- 
munication could be established by making 197 
miles of roads and two dams — one at the outlet 
of Dog Lake, and the other at Little Falls; or, by 
making 232 miles of road, and a couple of locks 
at Fort Francis, and a dam, the route might be re- 
duced to 273 miles of water, if the road were 
pushed on to Savanne River. It must be remem- 
bered that the Americans have already established a 
route by Chicago; but an examination of the dis- 
tances from Toronto shows that the Lake Superior 
route would save no less than 715 miles of rail, 35 



290 CANADA. 

of water, and 58 of road. The American route, 
however, possesses the advantage of having ah'eady 
820 miles of rail, of which 514 carry the traveller 
to Chicago from Toronto, and 306 convey him from 
Chicago to Prairie La Crosse ; whereas there is only 
a length of 95 miles open in Canada, from Toronto 
westwards to Collingwood. There is also an Ameri 
can route by Detroit, Milwaukie, and La Crosse to 
Fort Garry, 1696 miles long, but that is still 646 
miles longer than the communication which could 
be made by means of 232 miles of road, the con- 
struction of a dam and the locks in question. Labor 
might be tempted by offering, as is suggested, 
blocks of 100 acres to settlers on condition of their 
giving ten days' work in each year for ten years 
on the road, and thus preparing it for a railway 
track; but the settlers must be more patient and 
easily satisfied than their language now indicates, 
if they are content with the prospect of such a 
tedious fulfilment of their wishes. They are will- 
ing to open a road 100 miles long to the Lake 
of Woods if England or Canada will guarantee the 
rest of the road to Lake Superior; and they believe 
such a road would rapidly fill Central British Amer- 
ica with an industrious loyal people, and counteract 
the influence of the North American Republics. 
Whether the grand confederation which they foresee 
of flourishing provinces from Vancouver's Island to 
Nova Scotia, commanding the Atlantic and the 
Pacific, and keeping in line the boundaries of the 
Republicans, be ever realized in our day, it is plain 
that the people will neither be British nor loyal if 
they are neglected. The Americans have long been 
turning their eyes in the direction of these regions. 
Mr. Sibley, the last Governor of Minnesota, ordered 
Mr. James W. Taylor to obtain reliable information 
relative to the physical aspects and other facts con- 
nected with the British possessions on the line of the 
overland route from Pembina, via the Red River set- 



ASSINIBOIA. 291 

tlement and the Saskatchewan Valley, to Frazer's 
River. That gentleman's report was presented by- 
Governor Ramsay to the Legislature of the State 
in 1860, with a recommendation to their attention 
as "relating to matters which concern in a great 
degree the future growth and development of our 
State." Mr. Taylor was received by Mr. McTavish 
at the Selkirk settlement with every respect and con- 
sideration. He found the British colony of Assini- 
boia prosperous and flourishing. Respecting that 
colony he says : — 

_ " Of the present community of ten thousand souls, 
about five thousand are competent, at this moment, 
to assume any civil or social responsibility which 
may be imposed upon them. The accumulations 
from the fur trade during fifty years, with few excite- 
ments or opportunities of expenditure, have secured 
general prosperity, with frequent instances of afflu- 
ence ; while the numerous churches and schools sus- 
tain a high standard of morality and intelligence. 

" The people of Selkirk fully appreciate the advan- 
tages of communication with the Mississippi River 
and Lake Superior through the State of Minnesota. 
They are anxious for the utmost facilities of trade 
and intercourse. The navigation of the Red River 
by a steamboat during the summer of 1859 was uni- 
versally recognized as marking a new era in their 
annals. This public sentiment was pithily expressed 
by the remark, — ' In 1851 the Governor of Minnesota 
visited us ; in 1859 comes a steamboat ; and ten 
years more will bring the railroad I ' " 

The persons who expressed that sentiment differed 
entirely from the memorialists already mentioned ; 
but it must be that the Selkirk people, if neglected, 
will incline tov/ards the hand which is stretched out 
to them across the waste, no matter whence it comes. 
"Most amicable relations" do no doubt "exist be- 
tween the trading-post at Port Garry and Kitson's 
Station at St. Boniface ; " but long as they may en- 
dure — and I trust they may be perpetual — they 



292 CANADA. 

will not amount to a preference for Republican in- 
stitutions, if the mother-country seeks to secure the 
settlers by the most tender or subtle link of interest 
or regard. What change may be made in respect to 
the jurisdiction and powers of the Hudson's Bay 
Company by the home authorities must depend for 
the time on circumstances ; but the actual settlers 
seem to hope that the rumors which attributed to 
Lord Derby's Government the intention of organiz- 
ing a colony, bounded by Lakes Superior and Win- 
nipeg on the east, by the Rocky Mountains on the 
west, by the American frontier on the south, and by 
lat. 5d° Oil the north, may yet be justified. The 
Canadian Government, Palliser's expedition, Noble's 
explorations, Mr. J. W. Hamilton's surveys, and a 
considerable number of public and private investiga- 
tions conducted in the interests of politics, commerce, 
religion, and geographical science, have all contrib- 
uted their share to our knowledge of this vast terri- 
tory ; and the more we know of it the more eligible 
it seems as a field for individual enterprise, and 
an area for the exercise of legitimate Imperial ambi- 
tion. 

From Lake Winnipeg to the highest navigable 
point of Red River, which flows into the lake with a 
course from north to south, there is a distance of 575 
miles, only interrupted by some very insignificant 
shoals at the mouth of Goose River and the Shay- 
enne. Red Lake River and the Assiniboina extend 
the area of "coast" navigable by steamers in the 
Red River Valley to 900 miles — much more than is 
enjoyed internally by the United Kingdom and 
France together. Throughout the districts thus per- 
meated by navigable rivers, rye, oats, barley, potatoes, 
grass, and wheat, grow as well as they do, in Min- 
nesota ; and to these wild regions must be added the 
country along the great north Saskatchewan, and 
even the region which lies between it and the Rocky 
Mountains in a northerly direction. When Mr. Tay- 
lor wrote his Report, there was no reason to believe 



THE RED RIVER VALLEY. 293 

that "an adjustment of the future relations of the 
British Provinces and of the American States on a 
basis of mutual good-will and interest" might not be 
practicable ; but Fort Sumter changed all that, we 
fear, and there seems little chance of such an inter- 
national compact as he anticipates for a customs 
and postal union. In reference to such an adjust- 
ment he says : — 

" It should, at all events, stipulate that the Reci- 
procity Treaty, enlarged in its provisions and renewed 
for a long period of years, shall be extended to the 
Pacific Ocean, and, in connection therewith, all laws 
discriminating between American and foreign built 
vessels should be abolished, establishing freedom of 
navigation on all the intermediate rivers and lakes 
of the respective territories. Such a policy of free 
trade and navigation with British America would 
give to the United States, and especially to the west- 
ern States, all the commercial advantages, without 
the political embarrassments, of annexation, and 
would, in the sure progress of events, relieve our ex- 
tended northern frontier from the horrors and injuries 
of war between fraternal communities." 

It is little to be doubted that the people of Minne- 
sota are very well disposed to remain on friendly 
terms with their neighbors ; but the Federal Govern- 
ment at Washington, no matter for what party or 
section it acts, must, by the very necessity of its 
being and conditions of power, conduct the policy 
of the United States in a very different spirit. It is 
true our friends have, even so early, given some in- 
dications that they are prepared for eventualities. 

Whilst they have not been indifferent to the erec- 
tion of a military post at Pembina, some of their 
politicians, with a ludicrous pretence of fear from 
the colonists, in case of war, have called for the cre- 
ation of frontier forts; and the Indians in the north- 
west of Minnesota, who had a reservation, are to be 
treated with the usual measure of justice used by 
the white skin in dealing with the red skin, and to 



294 CANADA. 

be exterminated or driven into space as soon as con- 
venient or practicable. Mr. Taylor, in reference to 
the existence of coal near the sources of the Saskat- 
chewan, which is undoubted, admits the uncertainty 
of carboniferous strata in the ridges between the 
Minnesota and the Red River north of the Missis- 
sippi and Saskatchewan, though there are geological 
reasons to hold that they will be found there. In 
justice to the spirit in which this Report is conceived, 
I quote the concluding passages : — 

" The allusion just made to the exploring expedi- 
tion conducted under the authority of Canada, justi- 
fies a tribute to the zeal and intelligence with which 
the enterprise of an emigration and transportation 
route, from Fort William on the north shore of Lake 
Superior, to Fort Garry, is prosecuted. With the 
civil organization of Central British America, a 
wagon-road between those points, to be followed by 
a railroad, will receive all requisite encouragement, 
certainly from the Canadian Treasury, perhaps by 
the efficient cooperation of the Home Government. 
The Northwest Transit Company, acting under a 
Canadian charter, but understood to have enlisted 
London capitalists, is expected to resume operations 
during the summer of 1860. These movements of 
our provincial neighbors cannot fail to influence the 
policy of Minnesota in favor of more satisfactory 
communications than we now possess between Lake 
Superior and the channels of the Upper Mississippi 
and the Red River of the north. 

" I desire, in conclusion, to express my obligations 
to the late Executive of Minnesota, for the confidence 
implied by the commission to which the foregoing 
is a response. "* Believing firmly that the prosperity 
and development of this State is intimately associ- 
ated with the destiny of Northwest British America, 
I am gratified to record the rapid poncurrence of 
events which indicate that the frontier, hitherto, rest- 
ing upon the sources of the St. Lawrence and the 
Mississippi, is soon to be pushed far beyond the in- 



THE RED RIVER DISTRICT. ' 295 

ternational frontier by the march of Anglo - Saxon 
civilization." 

It is indeed " a country worth fighting for ; " and 
whether the contest be carried on by the slow proc- 
esses of immigration or by the ruder agencies of 
neglect, the conqueror and the conquered will have 
reason to regard the result with very decided senti- 
ments of joy or sorrow at no distant time. In the 
language of the report of the New York Chamber of 
Commerce, — " There is in the heart of North Amer- 
ica a distinct sub-division, of which Lake Winnipeg 
may be regarded as the centre. This sub-division, 
like the valley of the Mississippi, is distinguished for 
the fertility of its soil, and for the extent and gentle 
slope of its great plains, watered by rivers of great 
length, and admirably adapted for steam navigation. 
It has a climate not exceeding in severity that of 
many portions of Canada and the eastern States. 
It will, in all respects, compare favorably with some 
of the most densely peopled portions of the continent 
of Europe. In other words, it is admirably fitted to 
become the seat of a numerous, hardy, and prosperous 
community. It has an area equal to eight or ten 
first-class American States. Its great river, the Sas- 
katchewan, carries a navigable w^ater-line to the very 
base of the Rocky Mountains. It is not at all im- 
probable that the valley of this river may yet offer 
the best route for a railroad to the Pacific. The 
navigable waters of this great sub-division interlock 
with those of the Mississippi. The Red River of the 
north, in connection with Lake Winnipeg, into which 
it falls, forms a navigable water-line, extending di- 
rectly north and south nearly eight hundred miles. 
The Red River is one of the best adapted to the use 
of steam in the world, and waters one of the finest 
regions on the continent. Between the highest point 
at which it is navigable, and St. Paul, on the Mis- 
sissippi, a railroad is in process of construction ; and 
when this road is completed, another grand division 



296 CANADA. 

of the continent, comprising half a million square 
miles, will be open to settlement." 

It would be unjust to the Hudson's Bay Company 
to refuse them the praise due to the efforts of their 
servants in exploring the vast region over which they 
ruled, and to the constancy with which they have 
resisted aggression ; but as the privileges of that 
body have now become part of the stock-in-trade of 
a great mercantile- association, there can be no rea- 
son for doubting that a change of policy, in conso- 
nance with the tone of the governing sentiment of 
the age, will take place, and that the interests of free 
trade, and the more extensive interests connected 
with Imperial and Colonial progress and with col- 
onization itself, will be found not incompatible. 
When the ichthyophilists of London betake them- 
selves, in the leafy month of June, to Gravesend, 
in search of the placid turtle or the strenuous shrimp, 
they may be startled by the booming of guns from 
the bosom of the river, and by certain loud cheers 
from two strict-rigged craft anchored in the stream. 
A gayly decked river-steamer, from the flag-staff of 
which flutters a hieroglyph in blue and white, with 
the motto, "Pro pelle cutem,^^ is lying alongside the 
larger of the two. On board the steamer are many 
sorts and conditions of men — the friends of direc- 
tors, outlying members of both Houses, old salts and 
older commercial personages, and men wearing the 
bright, crisp, clean look of prosperous clerkdom. 
These circulate from the deck of the steamer to the 
broader expanse of the vessel alongside, where a 
stout weather-beaten crew are drawn up, listening to 
the recital of articles. Dipping down the compan- 
ion it is probable that the visitor will find in the cap- 
tain's cabin an assemblage of gentlemen, eating bis- 
cuit and drinking sherry to the health of the skipper, 
whilst others arc peering into compartments and 
berths 'twixt bulkheads filled with odd merchandise, 
from gas-pipe-barrelled guns to needles, anchors, blan- 



THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY. 297 

kets, crinoline, and artificial flowers. They are peo- 
ple whom we might meet in any place in London 
from west to east, wearing the indescribable air of 
men " out for the day." On deck are some old-fash- 
ioned brass-bound boxes, inscribed " Hudson's Bay 
Company," guarded by very ancient and fish-like 
attendants, in a red and blue livery. The steamer 
leaves the bluff double-cased sides of the vessel for 
a visit to her consort, for the two ships nowadays 
form the sum total of the fleet sailing annually to 
the Hudson's Bay settlements, where once there was 
a flotilla of smaller craft, dressed in all their bravery 
of flags, and making old Gravesend reecho to their 
salvos as they went forth on that which was then 
a dubious and adventurous voyage. Then, after 
much leave-taking, and drinking of anchor-cups, the 
steamer starts, amid the cheers of the outward-bound 
crew, for the Nore, to enjoy a little fresh air before 
she comes back to the Falcon at Gravesend, where 
the annual dinner is held, and where many good 
speeches are made and friendly sentiments expressed 
in support of the Hudson's Bay Company. The 
sagacious face of old Edward Ellice, seamed with 
the fine graver of thought, and plastic still as in 
youth, for many a long year fixed men's eyes with 
kindly regard ; and the 77iUis sapientia of his counsels, 
his unrivalled tact, albeit the exquisite touch lay in- 
side a shagreen glove, and his great ability in the 
conduct of affairs, gave the Company that which 
Rupert's charters, Charles's parchments, or prescrip- 
tive rights, never could have secured so long. 

It was under Sir E. L. Bulwer's administration of 
foreign affairs that the most strenuous attempt was 
made by the Government to adjust the conflicting 
claims of Canada and Great Britain with those of 
the Hudson's Bay Company, by the decision of the 
Judicial Committee of Privy Council ; but the Com- 
pany, though always willing to enter into an arrange- 
ment with the Government for the adjustment of 



298 CANADA. 

contending interests, uniformly and not unwisely re- 
fused to accept any arbitration or judgment involv- 
ing the question of the validity of their charters. 
The refusal of Parliament to renew the exclusive 
right of trading, in 1859, and the assumption of the 
control of Vancouver's Island by the Crown on the 
expiration of the lease in the same year, were heavy 
blows at the vested interests of the Company, which 
deprived its cessio bonorum to the English Credit 
Mobilier, in 1863, of great political importance, 
though enormous commercial results may still be ob- 
tained from the extension of trading and from set- 
tling and gold - exploring operations. When the 
speedy colonization and rapid rise of British Colum- 
bia caused some attention to be directed towards the 
means of getting there, and of cultivating an ac- 
quaintance promising such great advantages, and it 
was found that from east to west two routes were 
practicable, it was not surprising . if jealousy and 
alarm were aroused because the Americans, by 
further representations, unhappily baseless, respect- 
ing the energy of the initiative taken by Canada and 
England, had first started to clear the way to the 
west, and to open communications with the Red 
River settlement, en 7'oute. Fort Garry, in the Sel- 
kirk settlemen, was first visited by a steamer from 
the American post of Fort Abercrombie, in 1859. 
Minnesota was a State which had the advantage of 
a continental existence on the soil of the Great Re- 
public. " Organized as a territory in 1849, a single 
decade had brought the population, the resources, 
and the public recognition of an American State. 
A railroad system, connecting the lines of the Lake 
States and Provinces at La Crosse with the inter- 
national frontier on the Red River at Pembina, was 
not only projected, but had secured in aid of its con- 
struction a grant by the Congress of the United 
States of three thousand eight hundred and forty 
acres a mile, and a loan of State credit to the 



THE NORTHWESTERN REGIONS. 299 

amount of twenty thousand dollars a mile, not ex- 
ceeding an aggregate of five million dollars. Dif- 
ferent sections of this important extension of the 
Canadian and American railways were under con- 
tract and in process of construction. In addition, 
the land-surveys of the Federal Government had 
reached the navigable channel of the Red River; 
and the line of frontier settlement, attended by a 
weekly mail, had advanced to the same point. Thus 
the Government of the United States, no less than 
the people and authorities of Minnesota, were rep- 
resented in the northwest movement." 

No matter how prosperous a colony of Great 
Britain may be, a colony it must be so long as it is 
not independent. The first result of the prosperity of 
an American colony is its independence as a State 
and its incorporation as a member of the common 
sovereignty. The distinction arises from geograph- 
ical considerations, but it is not the less potent — I 
shall not yet say, more to be regretted. The reten- 
tion of Canada would be of little value to us if 
there were to the west of it a great and populous 
community, absorbing its capital, labor, and enter- 
prise for the benefit of aliens, and if to the south 
there were a series of States animated by an intense 
political dislike to the mother-country. But there is, 
as they say in Ireland, " the makings " of four free 
and independent States, on the American model of 
Ohio, in that district between the valleys of the 
North and South Saskatchewan. In 1858 an Amer- 
ican writer again described the region which the 
British Government, the Colonial Office, and the Im- 
perialism of bureaus, inclined to cast away without 
even a mess of pottage. That writer says : — 

" Here is the great fact of the northwestern areas 
of this continent. An area not inferior in size to 
the whole United States east of the Mississippi, 
which is perfectly adapted to the fullest occupation 
by cultivated nations, yet is almost wholly unoccu- 



300 CANADA. 

pied, lies west of the 98th meridian, and above the 
43d parallel, that is, north of the latitude of Milwau- 
kie, and west of the longitude of Red River, Fort 
Kearney, and Corpus Christi ; or, to state the fact in 
another way, east of the Rocky Mountains, and west 
of the 98th meridian, and between the 43d and 60th 
parallels, there is a productive, cultivable area of 
500,000 square miles. West of the Rocky Moun- 
tains and between the same parallels, there is an area 
of 300,000 square miles. 

" It is a great mistake to suppose that the temper- 
ature of the Atlantic coast is carried straight across 
the continent to the Pacific. Theisothermals deflect 
greatly to the north, and the temperatures of the 
Northern Pacific are paralleled in the high tempera- 
tures in high latitudes of Western and Central Eu- 
rope. The latitudes which inclose the plateaus of 
the Missouri and Saskatchewan, in Europe inclose 
the rich central plains of the Continent. The great 
grain-growing districts of Russia lie between the 45th 
and 60th parallel, that is, north of the latitude of St. 
Paul, Minnesota, or Eastport, Maine. Indeed, the 
temperature in some instances is higher for the same 
latitudes here than in Central Europe. The isother- 
mal of 70 deg. for the summer, which on our plateau 
ranges from along latitude 50 deg. to 52 deg., in 
Europe skirts through Vienna and Odessa in about 
parallel 46 deg. The isothermal of 55 deg. for the 
year runs along the coast of British Columbia, and 
does not go far from New York, London, and Se- 
bastopol. Furthermore, dry areas are not found 
above 47 deg., and there are no barren tracts of con- 
sequence north of the Bad Lands and the Coteau 
of the Missouri ; the land grows grain finely, and is 
well wooded. All the grains of the temperate dis- 
tricts are here produced abundantly, and Indian corn 
may be grown as high as the Saskatchewan. 

" The buffalo winters as safely on the upper Atha- 
basca as in the latitude of St. Paul, and the spring 



CLIMATE OF WINNIPEG BASIN. 301 

opens at nearly the same time along the immense 
line of plains from St. Paul to Mackenzie's River. 
To these facts, for which there is the authority of 
Blodgett's Treatise on the Climatology of the United 
States, may be added this, that to the region border- 
ing the Northern Pacific, the finest maritime posi- 
tions belong throughout its entire extent, and no 
part of the west of Europe exceeds it in the advan- 
tages of equable climate, fertile soil, and commercial 
accessibility of coast. We have the same excellent 
authority for the statement that in every condition 
forming the basis of national wealth, the continen- 
tal mass lying westward and northward from Lake 
Superior is far more valuable than the interior in 
lower latitudes, of which Salt Lake and Upper New 
Mexico are the prominent known districts. In short, 
its commercial and industrial capacity is gigantic. 
Its occupation was coeval with the Spanish occupa- 
tion of New Mexico and California." 

The climate of this district is at least as favorable 
to the agriculturist as that of Kingston, Upper Can- 
ada, and is quite salubrious. Special science thus 
describes it : — 

Professor Hind, who spent two summers in the 
country in charge of an expedition sent out by the 
Canadian Government, writes : " The basin of Lake 
Winnipeg extends over twenty -eight degrees of 
longitude, and ten degrees of latitude. The elevation 
of its eastern boundary, at the Prairie Portage, 104 
miles west of Lake Superior, is 1480 feet above the 
sea, and the height of land at the Vermillion Pass is 
less than 5000 feet above the same level. The mean 
length of this great inland basin is about 920 Eng- 
lish miles, and its mean breadth 380 miles ; hence its 
area is approximately 360,000 square miles, or a lit- 
tle more than that of Canada. 

" Lake Winnipeg, at an altitude of 628 feet above 
the sea, occupies the lowest depression of this great 
inland basin, covering with its associated lakes, Mani- 

14 



302 CANADA. 

tobah, Winnipegosis, Dauphin, and St. Martin, an 
area slightly exceeding 13,000 square miles, or nearly 
half as much of the earth's surface as is occupied by 
Ireland. 

" The outlet of Lake Winnipeg is through the 
contracted and rocky channel of Nelson River, which 
flows into Hudson's Bay. 

" The country, possessing a mean elevation of 100 
feet above Lake Winnipeg, is very closely repre- 
sented by the outline of Pembina Mountain, forming 
part of the eastern limit of the cretaceous series in 
the northwest of America. 

" The area occupied by this low country, which 
includes a large part of the valley of Red River, the 
Assiniboine, and the main Saskatchewan, may be 
estimated at 70,000 square miles, of which nine 
tenths are lakes, marsh, or surface rock of Silurian 
or- Devonian age, and generally so thinly covered 
with soil as to be unfit for cultivation, except in 
small isolated areas. 

" Succeeding this low region there are the narrow 
terraces of the Pembina Mountain, which rise in 
abrupt steps, except in the valleys of the Assiniboine, 
Valley River, Swan River, and Red Deer's River, to 
the level of a higher plateau, whose eastern limit is 
formed by the precipitous escarpments of the Riding, 
Duck, and Porcupine Mountains, with the detached 
outliers, Turtle, Thunder, and Pasquia Mountains. 
This is the great prairie plateau of Rupert's Land ; 
it is bounded towards the southwest and west by 
the Grand Coteau de Missouri, and the extension of 
the table-land between the two branches of the Sas- 
katchewan, which forms the eastern limit of the 
plains of the northwest. The area of the prairie 
plateau, in the basin of Lake Winnipeg, is about 
120,000 square miles ; it possesses a mean elevation 
of 1100 feet above the sea. 

" The plains rise gently as the Rocky Mountains 
are approached, and at their western limit have an 



AREA OF WINNIPEG BASIN. 303 

altitude of 4000 feet above the sea-level. With only 
a very narrow belt of intervening country, the moun- 
tains rise abruptly from the plains, and present lofty 
precipices that frown like battlements over the level 
country to the eastward. The average altitude of 
the highest part of the Rocky Mountains is 12,000 
feet (about lat. 51 deg.). The forest extends to the 
altitude of 7000 feet, or 2000 feet above the lowest 
pass. 

'' The fertile belt of arable soil, partly in the form 
of rich, open prairie, partly covered with groves of 
aspen, which stretches from the Lake of the Woods 
to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, averages 80 to 
100 miles in breadth." 

Dr. James Hector, and all the explorers, agree in 
their descriptions of this region. It is difficult to 
reach ; but is it so difficult to reach as the shores of 
America itself were 300, or 200, or 100 years ago ? 
We cannot conceive what a century has done in 
America, or at home. How little, then, can we con- 
jecture what the next fifty years will effect in these 
distant lands! The map, which now is crowded 
with the names of cities where red men roamed in 
terra incognita so recently as the beginning of this 
century, should reprove any incredulity. The na- 
tions are like water. When a country is ffiled above 
its capacity, its surplus overflows. As soon as all 
the eligible districts of Canada are occupied, the 
streams of settlers will pour westwards ; tracks and 
roads will be made ; and, if the land be good, it will 
soon be filled with people. As to the great regions 
which lie to the west, and open on the Pacific, it can 
only be said that they are to us what California was 
to the United States on the first discovery of gold ; 
and that after fifty years they may be less than Cali- 
fornia is now, if steps be not taken to bind them up 
with British interests, and to oppose the American- 
ization with which they are threatened. Without 
reference to the Far West, or the Far Northwest, 
without regard to the Red River and Assiniboia or 



304 CANADA. 

to British Columbia, there is before us the great 
fact, that out of the Canadas, and the British North 
American Provinces and dependencies, can be created 
a powerful Confederation attached to this country, 
and capable of the grandest development in spite 
of climatic influences. We have already given a 
slight sketch of the extent and capability of these 
provinces, and hinted at the difficulties that may 
arise in the working of the Confederation. Canada 
is now more than threatened with the loss of the 
advantages which were supposed to depend on the 
Reciprocity Treaty, and Great Britain is formally 
warned that she must prepare to meet Federal en- 
croachments on the Lakes. Mr. Gait, in a very 
elaborate speech, exhaustive of the topics connected 
with the financial aspect of the future Confederation, 
lately laid before his hearers a series of calculations 
which deserve close attention, and which are, we 
believe, entitled to full confidence. The United 
States *at the end of the year 1865 will either have 
effected the subjugation of the South by the destruc- 
tion of all her armies in the field, or she will see an 
increase to her debt of at least forty millions sterling, 
or she will have arranged a compromise with the 
South of which one feature will be the assumption 
of the Southern debt. In the first case, the North 
must prepare for a long and costly military occupa- 
tion. In no case as yet have the trade and com- 
merce of any Southern port or city subjugated and 
held by Union troops, paid the Federal Government 
for the cost of holding it. In the second case, in- 
crease of taxation must fall with such a crushing 
weight on the poorer classes, especially in the agri- 
cultural States, as to force many of the people to 
take refuge in Canada, unless deterred by unforeseen 
obstacles. In the third case, the immediate result 
will be to throw on the Northern States for some 
considerable period a greater amount of debt, and 
of consequent derangement, than they would have 
been subjected to by either of the preceding condi- 



FINANCES OF THE CONFEDERATION. 305 

tions. There can be no just comparison between 
the United States and the projected Confederation, 
except in the ratio of taxation per capita. And, if 
we take inconae, expenditure, and possible debt at 
the end of 1865, and contrast the financial position 
of the British Confederate with that of the Ameri- 
can Federalist, we will find that the advantage is 
decidedly on the side of the latter. 

According to the Hon. A. T. Gait, the following 
is a fair statement of the revenue and expenditure 
of the provinces, of the debts and liabilities, of the 
trade, exports and imports, and of all the assets and 
demands by which the future Confederation would 
be influenced, excluding of course the cost of such 
undertakings as great intercolonial roads or enlarge- 
ments of canals. Mr. Gait may not be a favorite 
with some theorists of the Colonial Office ; he cer- 
tainly is not popular at Washington, and he is not 
more honored at home than most prophets, but he is 
an able, clear-headed, trustworthy man : — 

THE FINANCIAL POSITION OF THE PROVINCES. 

Debt, 1863. Income, 1863. Outlay, 1863. 

Nova Scotia .... $4,858,547 $1,185,629 $1,072,274 

New Brunswick .... 5,702,991 899,991 884,613 

Newfoundland (1862) . . . 946,000 480,000 479,420 

Prince Edward Island . . . 240,673 197,384 171,718 

Maritime Provinces . $11,748,211 $2,763,004 $2,008,025 
Canada .... 67,263,994 9,760,316 10,742,807 

Totals . . $79,012,205 $12,523,320 $13,350,832 

INCREASED REVENUES IN 1864. 
Canada, without the produce of the new taxes . . $1,500,000 

New Brunswick 100,000 

Nova Scotia 100,000 

$1,700,000 

Deficit of 1863 $827,512 

Surplus of 1864 872,488 

$1,700,000 
Total revenues of all the Colonies, 1864 .... $14,223,320 
Outlay 13,350,832 

Estimated Surplus $872,488 

20 



306 



CANADA. 



THE POSITION OF THE CONFEDERATION, ESTIMATED ON 
THE BASIS OF 1864. 

Revenue now Local Revenues Subsidy to be Difference, avail- 



produced for 


which would 


paid to able for the 


General 


not go into the 


each purposes of the 


Government. 


general Chest. 


Province. Gen'l Government 


Canada . . $11,250,000 


$1,297,043 


$2,006,121 


Nova Scotia . 1,300,000 


107,000 


264,000 


New Brunswick 1,000,000 


89,000 


264,000 


Prince Edw'd IsI'd 200,000 


32,000 


353,728 


Newfoundland . 480,000 


5,000 


369,000 


$14,230,000 


$1,530,043 


$3,056,849 $9,643,108 






Difference paya- 




Expenditure. 


Local Outlay. ble by the 

Gen'l Government. 


Canada, .... 


$9,800,000 


$2,260,149 


Nova Scotia 


. 1,222,555 


667,000 


New Brunswick . 


. 834,518 


424,047 


Prince Edward Island 


171,718 


124,016 


Newfoundland 


. 479,000 

$12,507,591 

of the General ( 


479,000 




$3,954,212 $8,553,379 


Surplus at the disposal 


Jovernment . $1,089,729 



Canada . 
Nova Scotia . 
New Brunswick 



AVERAGE OF THE PRESENT TARIFFS. 
20 percent. Newfoundland . 

. 10 « 
15^ " 



Prince Edward Island 



11 per cent. 
10 " 



FUTURE POSITION OF THE PROVINCES. 



Nova Scotia . 
New Brunswick 
Prince Edward Island 
Newfoundland . 



Canada 



Local Revenues. 

$107,000 

89,000 

. 32,000 

5,000 

$233,000 
1,297,043 



$1,530,043 



Estimated Outlay Estimated Local 

for 1864 under Outlay under 

present Government, the Union. 

$667,000 371,000 

404,047 353,000 

171,718 124,015 

479,000 250,000 



$1,721,765 $1,098,015 

* 2,021,979 t 
t 238,170 



$3,981,914 t 



* Average of the last four years. t Interest on excess of debt. 

+ Not estimated by Mr. Gait, for reasons given in the speech. 



IMPORTS, EXPORTS, AND TONNAGE. 307 

THE AUDITOR'S STATEMENT OF THE LIABILITIES OF CANADA. 

Debenture Debt, direct and indirect .... $65,238,649.21 

Miscellaneous Liabilities 64,426.14 

Common-School Fund 1,181,958.85 

Indian Fund 1,577,802.46 

Banking Accounts 3,396,982.81 

Seigniorial Tenure: — 

Capital to Seigniors . . . $2,889,711.09 
Chargeable on Municipalities' Fund . 196,719.66 
On account of Jesuits' Estates . 140,271.87 

Indemnity to the Townships . . 891,500.00 

4,118,202.62 

$75,578,022.09 
Less — Sinking Funds . . . $4,883,177.11 
Cash and Bank Accounts . . 2,248,891.87 

7,132,068.98 

$68,445,953.11 
From which, for reasons given in his speech, Mr. Gait de- 
ducted the Common-School Fund 1,181,958.85 

Leaving as Net Liabilities . . $67,263,994.26 



IMPORTS, EXPORTS, AND TOIS 

Imports. 
Canada . . . $45,964,000 
Nova Scotia . . 10,201,391 
New Brunswick . . 7,764,824 
Prince Edward Island . 1,428,028 
Newfoundland . . 5,242,720 


[NAGE OF TH 

Exports. 
$41,831,000 
8,420,968 
8,964,784 
1,627,540 
6,002,312 

$66,846,604 

LakeT 

Total Tons 


E PROYINCES. 

Sea-going Tonnage. 

Inward and Outward 

2,133,000 

1,432,954 

1,386,980 

No returns. 


$70,600,963 
66,846,604 


$4,952,934 
onnage 6,907,000 


Total Trade . $137,447,567 


. 11,859,934 



A people of more than four millions will owe 
something over 13,000,000/., as compared with a 
people of thirty millions owing 900,000,000/. ster- 
ling ; and with a trade of 27,000,000/. a-year there 
is no compensating power in any commercial superi- 
ority the United States may possess to establish an 
equation. If the expenses of the local and of the 
Federal Governments be properly kept in hand, the 
condition of the British Confederation, in a pecuni- 
ary point of view at all events, must be infinitely 
better than that of the Federal Union either by itself 
or with the {Southern States. 

The Confederation which has just been proposed 



308 CANADA. 

by delegates at Quebec, and which will come before 
Parliament soon after this volume escapes from the 
printers, vests the Executive in the Sovereign of 
Great Britain ; a superfluous investiture, unless the 
delegates meant rebellion ; and it provides for its 
administration according to the British constitution, 
by the Sovereign or authorized representative. It 
does not appear very plain how the Sovereign of a 
mixed monarchy with a limited franchise for the peo- 
ple can administer his quasi-republican and unaris- 
tocratic viceroyalty according to the principles of the 
British constitution ; particularly, as the Sovereign or 
his representative is to be the Commander-in-Chief 
of the land and naval forces of the Confederation, 
which are thus expressly removed from the control 
of the War-Ofl[ice at home. Difficulties of a merely 
technical character will no doubt be overcome. But 
the King of Great Britain and Ireland, in whom the 
Executive is vested, will have to deal with a Trans- 
atlantic House of Commons founded on abstract 
returns of population, and elected by the provinces 
according to their local laws ; so that some mem- 
bers will represent universal suffi-age, and others 
limited constituencies, which is very different indeed 
from the House of Commons of Great Britain and 
Ireland. 

In the Upper House a Wensleydale peerage is re- 
produced. It is to consist of seventy-six members 
nominated by the Sovereign for life, of whom twen- 
ty-four are assigned to Upper Canada, and twenty- 
four to Lower Canada, ten for Nova Scotia, ten for 
New Brunswick, four for Newfoundland, and four 
for Prince Edward Island. The Lower House, far 
less aristocratic in its relations to Lower and Upper 
Canada, has eighty-two members from the latter, 
and sixty-five from the former, nineteen from Nova 
Scotia, fifteen for New Brunswick, eight for New- 
foundland, and five for Prince Edward Island. " Sav- 
ing the Sovereignty of England," the powers of the 



PROPOSED FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 309 

Federal Parliament, as enumerated under thirty-seven 
different heads, are very large, and on such heads as 
currency and coinage seem to trench on dangerous 
ground, and in the last head of all are dangerously 
vague. The appointment of the Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor by the Federal Government itself is obviously 
open to exception, because it is anomalous ; but as 
all the principles as well as the details of the measure 
will receive the most careful consideration, it is not 
necessary to treat the proposal as an accomplished 
fact, although it certainly is most desirable to treat 
every article with respectful attention, and to give 
every weight to the expressed opinion of the dele- 
gates. Among the objects specially indicated for 
the future action of the Confederate or Federal 
Government are the completion of the Intercolonial 
Railway from Riviere du Loup to Truro, in Nova 
Scotia, through the Province of New Brunswick, and 
the completion of communication with the North- 
western territories, so as to open the trade to the 
Atlantic sea-coast* ; both to be effected as soon as the 
Federal finances permit. Here there is the most 
tangible proposal for the opening up of the great 
regions to which I have called attention ; and the 
Valley of the Saskatchewan is promised the facility 
which is alone wanting to make it the seat of a 
flourishing colony. When the Red River Settlement 
is once connected with Lake Superior, the way to 
the sea is open, but the advantages of access to the 
world will be increased enormously as soon as the 
railway is pushed ori to the shores of Lake Huron 
from Nova Scotia. 

So eager is one to grasp at the benefits which some 
such Confederation promises to confer, that the perils 
to the prerogative of the Crown, and to the body so 
formed, are apt to lie hid from view. But they must 
be well guarded against ; and I for one am persuaded 
that it would be far better for us to see the Provinces 
of British America independent tjian to behold them 
14* 



310 CANADA. 

incorporated with the Northern Republic. The great- 
est of all these internal perils is in the maintenance 
of the Local Parliaments, which may come into col- 
lision with the Federal Government on local ques- 
tions impossible to foresee, or define, or adjust; but 
as the delegates considered the plan of a complete 
Legislative Union quite incompatible with the re- 
served rights of a portion of the Confederation, the 
only way left to escape the mischiefs which threaten 
the future life of the new body is to bind those Local 
Parliaments within the most narrow limits, consistent 
with local utility and existence. 

It is not for the sake of our future connection, but 
for their own integrity and happiness that such a 
course is recommended. They have " an awful ex- 
ample " at their doors. The torrents of blood which 
have deluged the soil of the North American Repub- 
lics all welled out of the little chink in the corner- 
stone of the Constitution, on one side of which lay 
States' Rights, and on the other Federal Authority. 
Without some justification in law and in argument, 
such men as Calhoun, and Stephens, and Davis, 
would never have reasoned, and planned, and fought, 
and worked a whole people up to make war against 
the Union. Sad as the spectacle is of a community 
of freemen waging war against the principles of self- 
government, it must be admitted that their instinct 
may be sounder than their reasoning, and that they 
are engaged in a struggle for self-preservation, in 
which they have swelled their proportions into that 
of a gigantic despotism, but have after all attained 
a giant's port and strength. It is impossible to say 
whether the corruption which Montesquieu has de- 
clared to be the destruction of a democracy, has yet 
seized upon the tremendous impersonation of brute 
force, of unconquerable will, of passion, of lust of 
empire, which now rules in the Capitol, and occupies 
the throne whereon feebly sat heretofore the mild im- 
puissance of the old Federal Executive ; but if the 



LESSONS FROM THE AMERICAN STRUGGLE. 311 

pictures which have been presented to us be true, 
there is a prophetic meaning in the words of the phil- 
osophic Frenchman, — " Les politiques grecs, qui 
vivaient dans le gouvernement populaire, ne recon- 
naissaient d'autre force qui put le soutenir que celle 
de la vertu. Ceux d'aujourd'hui ne nous parlent que 
des nrianufactures, de commerce, de finances, de 
richesse, et de luxe meme." The giant's feet may be 
of clay, and his body may be of that artificial stiffen- 
ing which gives to worthless stuffs a temporary sub- 
stantiality, but behind the giant stand the great 
American people, with hands dyed in their brothers' 
gore, and who, having sacrificed friendship, traditions, 
constitution, and liberty at home, will think but little 
of adding to the pyre of their angry passions the 
peace and happiness of others. 



THE END. 



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